Oh, You Pretty Things
by Seanchaidh
Summary: The 4th & final part of my series 5th if you count Stormy Weather . Connor has his own team, Helen has her own agenda and Lester has his own problems. How will the team cope? Will Connor return? Can they stop Helen this time? Or is it already too late?
1. Chapter 1

**Oh, You Pretty Things**

(Sequel to Bad Penny)

**Chapter 1**

"Just be careful, that's all I'm saying."

Sir James Lester kept his voice low and serious. He could see from Becker's face that his advice was not welcome.

"It's not like we're going to run off into the sunset together and leave you in the lurch!" Becker hissed.

"You know I don't think that!" Lester snapped. "You also know the dangers of getting involved with someone. Especially coming from your background and in your current situation! I did not train you to be this naive!"

"No, you trained me to trust my own judgement! That is what I'm doing!"

"Not when your judgement is impaired by your feelings for someone!"

"Are you seriously telling me that I should look forward to a life with out the possibility of any form of relationship other than a working one?" Becker hissed, the anger he felt showing clearly in his face. "A wife and kids is all right for the great James Lester, but woe betide anyone else who dares to consider the possibility!"

"That's entirely different!" Lester replied, his tone icy.

"How so?"

"My family are completely separate from work," Lester hissed. "The two worlds do not come into contact, not even in the slightest. Besides: I only have the one identity to worry about. Have you considered that at all? When precisely are you planning on telling her who you really are? First date? When you propose? Wedding day perhaps? Or even never? What kind of a relationship would that be?"

Becker opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by the warning siren sounding from the ARC atrium. Another anomaly had opened. The argument would have to wait.

XXXX

Connor stared blankly at the shimmering anomaly in front of him. It winked out suddenly and a clutch of scientists bustled around the spot where it had been. When they had hurried back to their posts, behind the safety of their computer screens, a small, metallic object became visible beneath the anomaly point. It was the newest design of the anomaly rover. It had been upgraded and updated and upmarketed until it covered every possible contingency that could befall it on the far side of any anomaly, with the possible exceptions of volcanoes, deep sea abysses and black holes. Connor's mind registered that the rover was in place, and that all his team were ready for the new test, but was far too preoccupied to give the signal they were all waiting for.

It had been over a month since the warning from Nick and the first text that coincided with the anomaly activity. Now the texts seemed to be arriving every other day. At first, some of them arrived on their own. Now they all came through at the exact moment an anomaly spiked. Anomalies never spiked without a text message arriving, and the text messages never arrived without an anomaly spiking. Even the ones that had arrived before had done so without the presence of the anomaly at all. There was no way to tell whether the spike in the anomaly activity was directly linked to the message, or just a side effect. At least there hadn't been until yesterday.

Yesterday was the first time one of his team had also received a text message during an anomaly run. It was just a silly thing from Nigel's mother asking him for advice on something, but it had come through while the anomaly was open nonetheless. And the anomaly hadn't spiked.

That had raised questions in Connor's mind. Did Nigel's one message prove that Connor's many messages were linked to the anomaly? Or did it have something to do with where the message had been sent from or the fact they had different service providers? Was Nigel's message an anomaly in itself? Connor had become so used to using the word to describe the shimmering rips in the fabric of reality that he had almost forgotten its true meaning.

Someone was calling his name. Connor looked up. It was Peta. They were ready. He shook himself and drew a hand across his eyes. The rover could tell them so much more about the anomaly as it formed and what lay within it, never mind what lay on the other side. He pressed a few buttons on his keyboard and watched the live feed from the rover's super slow motion high definition camera fill the screen. He clicked the record button and raised a hand to signal Peta.

The anomaly burst onto his screen, filling the view far faster than his own eyes could pick out any detail. Later they would rewind the recording and watch it in super slow motion. Now they had to make sure the rover would transmit through the anomaly in the same detail. At least they knew that the Triassic landscape beyond was relatively harmless. The occasional nothosaurus, having wandered over the rocks and away from its usual part of the beach, might come across the rover and decide to try and eat it, but they couldn't do it that much damage. Connor picked up his control pad for the rover and edged the lever forward. The glare on his screen cleared and a new picture took over.

Connor's startled reaction made the rest of the team rush from their places to his computer. The look of mute shock that covered his face had stayed rigid as they gathered round, their faces gradually mimicking his own. Whisperings and mutterings filled the air around Connor as he struggled to take in the view in front of him. Only one thing ran through his mind. One phrase filled his consciousness until he was deaf and blind to everything else.

It's not the beach.

XXXX

"What have we got?" Lester demanded as he reached the small group in the atrium.

"It's in London, sir," replied Margo, the new anomaly detector operator who had taken over from Nigel when Connor's team left. "North Kensington. A school, by the looks of things. Printing out the address now, sir."

Cutter looked from the map in front of them to Lester's face and back, then glanced at Abby. Abby looked round at Lester, then back to Cutter. She shrugged and shook her head.

"Lester?" Cutter asked. "What's wrong?"

"Get everyone on it," Lester snapped, his face uncharacteristically white. He snatched the printout from Margo and handed it to Becker without moving his eyes from the screen. "I want all civilians out of that area without any casualties. Tell them it's a training exercise for you. Tell them it's a gas leak. Tell them it's an emergency drill for them. Anything! Just get there, get them out and get it sorted! Now!"

Becker was off before Lester had finished his speech, with Cutter and Abby following him closely. As they reached the Jeep, Becker finally slowed down to give orders to his men.

"Call Kate, get her to meet us there," he said, giving the slip of paper with the address to Abby. He swung himself into the driving seat of the vehicle as Abby climbed in behind him, one hand already dialling, and Cutter sat down next to him.

"What's going on?" Cutter demanded. "I know these things aren't usually a walk in the park but there's more to this than usual. More urgency. And Lester? My God, he looks as though the polar ice caps have just melted!"

"In Lester's world, right now, they may as well have done," Becker replied, accelerating out of the ARC campus. "The anomaly is right in the middle of his son's primary school."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Sorry for the delay folks. Was on holiday. Now I'm back. Let me know what you think please.**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Connor's eyes were beginning to water. Suddenly, he remembered he hadn't blinked since the black, charred landscape had filled the screen in front of him. He closed his eyes and rubbed a hand across them, part hoping and part afraid that the beach would have returned to his screen when he opened his eyes again. It hadn't.

By this time, Peta had joined him and was staring at the screen over his shoulder. Connor gradually became aware that Nigel and the others were looking from their computer screens to him and back, identical expressions of confusion on every face.

Connor shook his head. He had to snap out of it. He had a team of his own now and they were waiting for his orders.

"Report!" Connor shouted, rubbing his eyes again and scanning the view ahead of him.

"Gas spectroscopy results show oxygen levels at fifteen percent, nitrogen at sixty five percent," called one of the computer technicians. "Carbon dioxide is at fifteen percent and the last five percent is made up of argon, ozone, nitrous oxide, sulphur dioxide, methane and ammonia, with some water vapour."

"Geiger counter is detecting dangerously high levels of radiation," Nigel added. "Temperature reading is twenty five degrees centigrade."

"Define 'dangerously high'?" Connor queried.

"Averaging two point five Sieverts," Nigel replied.

"Great!" Connor groaned. "How long until we can have the de-con ready?"

"Shouldn't take more than ten minutes, sir," one of the techs replied. Connor vaguely registered the man's name was Luke.

"Get it set up," Connor nodded in Luke's direction. Sighing, he settled back in his chair and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He needed a shave. He'd have to see to that later. Sleep would be good too. Perhaps once they'd got the rover back, maybe with a few samples, he could go and take a nap while it was in the decontamination unit. Ten minutes. Well, they could take a look around at least. Pick up those samples that would hopefully give them some clue as to where the anomaly had taken them. He leaned forward. "All right, folks," he called. "Let's get this buggy rolling."

XXXX

By the time Becker turned into the school car park, rounding the corner of the gate on two wheels, the entire school had been evacuated and teachers were dutifully counting heads of lined up classes in the playground. One boy of about eight was being towered over by a middle-aged woman Becker could only assume was the headmistress. She was speaking very sternly to the boy, who glared sullenly at the corner of the school building behind the reprimanding adult.

The headmistress looked up sharply as Becker screeched to a halt, other military vehicles filling the car park behind him and rapidly disgorging their contents. Pausing only to give a few brief orders to his men, Becker headed over to the headmistress and boy, followed by Cutter and Abby.

"What is the meaning of this?" The headmistress demanded.

"What's going on here?" Becker demanded, ignoring the headmistress and talking directly to the boy.

The boy looked round, surprised and slightly scared.

"M-my dad," he stuttered. "He phoned and told me to set off the fire alarm, then get out of the building as quick as possible. He said it was urgent and that it was an order. He said he'd explain later."

"John Lester, you have been warned!" The headmistress spat. "This school does not take kindly to liars!"

"That explains why you don't like my dad!" John Lester muttered quietly.

Behind Becker, Abby and Cutter exchanged an amused glance. Becker transferred his attention from John to his headmistress, who was visibly seething.

"The boy isn't lying," Becker confirmed. "We have been sent by Sir James. Might I have a word in private?"

The headmistress's expression changed from fury to confusion. With a sharp flick of her hand, she indicated an area off to the side of the car park. Becker followed her over there.

"We have received intelligence that there may be a terrorist attack on this school," said Becker, keeping his voice low. "It is imperative that everyone is removed from the area. How quickly can you arrange for the children to be sent home?"

"Not very," the headmistress sniffed. "Most of our pupils' parents work during the day."

"Can you take them elsewhere then? The local community centre or sports fields?"

"I suppose St. Agatha's would be able to accommodate us."

St. Agatha's Grammar School was a private school a few streets away.

"That'll do," Becker nodded. "Just leave the rest to us. We'll call you when it's safe to return."

"You don't know my number and you haven't even asked my name," the headmistress sniffed again.

"Don't worry," said Becker with a grin as he turned back to Cutter and Abby. "We know how to find you."

XXXX

Kate Barratt banged her head on her steering wheel in frustration. Yet another traffic jam! No wonder she hated London! It was full of strangers who didn't know you and didn't care. It stank. It took ages to get anywhere. It cost ten times more to live here than in Hull. If you wanted to do any diving at all it either had to be in a swimming pool or in the Thames, neither of which were famous for their wildlife, although the Thames was supposedly getting better. Other than that you had to spend half a day travelling to somewhere just to dive for an hour or so, then spend the other half of the day travelling back, or shell out for accommodation!

She looked again at the message she had hastily scribbled down. An anomaly in Lester's son's school. The poor man would be beside himself. Although, saying that, she reconsidered, the poor man in question was Lester, a mad who had so far seemed unaffected by anything she had yet encountered, so perhaps he was holding up okay.

A horn sounded from behind Kate and she noticed that the traffic was once again moving. She rolled the car forward into yet another queue, this time for turning left onto the main road for Kensington, and stopped as the lights returned to red. The honking resumed, this time from in front of Kate. Yet another bunch of idiots had gone forward into the yellow hatched area of the crossroads without being able to get out the other side of it and now they were blocking traffic going the other way. Kate threw up her hands in disgust. Some people just had no patience!

XXXX

As the door closed on the decontamination unit, the rover safely inside, Connor stood up and stretched. According to Nigel's calculations, it would take approximately two hours to decontaminate the rover fully. The samples had been removed and placed in lead boxes. They were on their way upstairs to the lab on the first floor. Peta was taking charge of things down here and Nigel was taking charge of the lab work. He could finally go and sleep. But what if something happened? What if he was needed? He knew so much more than any of the others here. What if they missed something?

As if reading his mind, Peta came over and physically turned him round and shoved him in the direction of the lift.

"You're no use to us exhausted," she said, pressing the button for the top floor as Connor sleepily dragged himself into the lift. "Get some rest. I'll call you if anything happens."

As the door slid shut and the lift began to climb the three floors to the residential level, Connor leant back against the wall. The metal felt cool against his back and he rested his head against it. So much to think about. So many questions needing answered. He tried to focus his mind on their newest puzzle, but he couldn't. Every time he pictured the anomaly in front of him, he pictured Abby by his side. Abby. It had been months now since they'd seen each other or even spoken. How he missed her. Even now it was still like a part of him had been ripped out and all that was left was a gaping hole in his life where she should have been.

What was she doing now? Was she happy? Was she safe? Did she ever think about him? Wonder if she'd made the right decision? If he had? Had she wanted him to stay? Had she wanted him to go? Was this enforced separation a way of saying she didn't care about him any more under the guise of 'doing their duty' to humanity? She had seemed very friendly with Becker before he left. What if he was the reason she had decided to stay? He was macho and moody and an action man, just like Stephen had been. She had liked all of that in Stephen, why not in Becker?

The lift dinged to alert Connor to his arrival at the top floor, bringing him out of his thoughts and reminding him of his need for sleep. Willing one foot in front of the other, he dragged his body along the corridor, moving zombie-like from the lift to his sterile, government funded room. With a concentrated effort of thought, he turned the door handle pushed the door open, stumbling into the room as the support of the door moved away from him, dragging his body with it. He shut the door behind him and staggered over to the memory foam mattressed bed, letting his body collapse on top of the covers fully clothed. Without leaning down to untie the laces, he kicked off his trainers and turned himself round to rest his head on the memory foam pillow at the head of the bed. Within seconds he was sound asleep, exhaustion taking over and blanking out the sound of the bedroom door opening behind him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Peta put the mobile phone down on the table by the bed. She looked down at the soundly sleeping Connor sprawled across the duvet. Smiling she reached down and brushed the hair aside from his face.

"You really are quite remarkable, Connor Temple," she muttered. "Who in their right mind would want to give you up."

Sighing, she turned away from the bed and reached up into a cupboard, retrieving a grey micro fibre blanket. She spread the blanket over the sleeping man, picked up his trainers from the floor and put them neatly together by the bedside table, then quietly turned and slipped out of the room.

XXXX

By the time Kate finally arrived at the school, the playground was fully devoid of children and staff. She parked her car hurriedly, almost hitting a bushy shrubbery with plywood cut-outs of medieval knights on horseback rising above it protectively. Kate shuddered. She hated shrubberies, or any kind of ordered, landscaped gardening. The only visible signs of life were the black-clad soldiers in the back of a communications van, monitoring monitors.

Sighing and rolling her eyes at the infuriating pace of city traffic, Kate headed over towards the van. As she passed a shrubbery, a small sound reached her ears and she stopped, listening. There it was again: a faint rustling coming from the shrubbery. Slowly, quietly, Kate turned to face the source of the sound. Scrutinising every leaf for any sign of a creature out of its place in time. She stepped towards the shrubbery. Yes, there was definitely something there. Some shadowy form hid within the depths of the leaves, defying definition.

Slowly, ever so slowly, controlling every muscle in her body as best she could and focussing all her senses on the shrubbery in front of her, Kate inched her way forwards. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Her pulse echoed in her ears. Unconsciously holding her breath, she reached out a hand to the shrubbery. Suddenly, Kate froze. Something was behind her. Taking care to move her head as little as possible, she let her eyes slide sideways. Whatever it was moved closer. She could feel it's breath on her neck and cheek.

"Nice of you to join us!" Becker whispered in Kate's ear.

Kate jumped and spun round to face the captain, landing a fist on his shoulder before he could, or would, react. The second punch stopped midway as Becker caught her wrist and raised an amused eyebrow.

"I could have you arrested for that you know," he grinned.

"You jerk!" Kate fumed, aiming another punch with her free hand and promptly having that caught too. "You completely and utterly intolerable..."

"You need to be more aware of your surroundings," Becker cut her off.

"I was aware of my surroundings! That was why I was investigating that bunch of bushes behind me!"

"And completely oblivious to someone walking up behind you on gravel!"

"I thought you were a creature! I nearly had a heart attack!"

"I could have been a creature! Then you really would have been in trouble! You didn't realise I was there until it would have been way too late!"

"And what about the shape in the bushes that I was watching?"

"What shape? There's nothing there?"

Kate twisted her head round to gaze at the bushes where the shadow had been. Whatever it was, it was gone now.

"It's gone," she frowned, turning back to Becker. "There was definitely something there though."

"What kind of thing?" Becker sighed, looking dubious.

"A shape, a shadow, I don't know," Kate snapped. "Someone interrupted me just as I was about to find out!"

"Well, you're not the only one then," Becker sighed.

"What do you mean?" Kate frowned.

"We've had a call from the ARC. There's another anomaly, down in Dorset. I've left Cutter and Abby dealing with this one and I'm taking a team down to secure the other one until they can get there and you're coming with me. You're now lead biologist, for this anomaly at least."

"You mean I have to get back in that car and drive across these infuriating city roads again! I nearly crashed three times on the way over here thanks to the maniac drivers in this place!"

"Well, maybe I should drive then!"

"You will not!"

"You know, I know almost all the short cuts in this part of the city and I've been trained to drive just about anything. Where are your keys?"

"You are not driving my car!" Kate shouted. "It might be old and battered with a boot that doesn't lock and a tape deck that chews up anything you put in it, but it's mine and you're not driving it!"

"Oh really?"

Becker switched Kate's right hand over to his right, holding both her slim wrists with one hand. Ignoring Kate's furious glare boring into the side of his head he reached into first her jacket pockets, then her handbag, eventually drawing out the small bundle of keys. And dangling them triumphantly in the air.

"Now are you coming with me, or are you just going to stand there and glare at me all day?" Becker asked.

"Since you've still got hold of my wrists, it doesn't look like I have much of a choice!" Kate hissed.

"You only had to ask," Becker smirked, letting go of Kate's wrists and striding off towards her car before she had time to aim another punch at him.

Kate huffed and shook her head in disbelief, storming over to the car while Becker settled himself in the driver's seat and radioed an order over to the waiting van of soldiers. She dragged the passenger side door open, its hinges creaking in protestation, and swung herself into the seat, glaring out of the windscreen as she shut the door and clipped her seat belt in place.

Reversing faster than Kate would have liked, though slower than she would have herself, Becker turned the car and headed out onto the road, following the unmarked, military filled van as it accelerated away from the quiet suburban school. Had either of them been paying less attention to the van or to each other, they might have heard the dull thump from the rear of the car as an extra passenger slid backwards and hit the door of the boot.

"I cannot believe I am stuck in this car with you all the way to Dorset and I don't even get to drive!" Kate muttered.

"There's space in the van with my men if you prefer," Becker suggested nonchalantly.

"Oh, no, no, no!" Kate snapped. "You might be able to steal my keys and drive my car without my permission, but there is no way I'm leaving you alone with it! You are not getting rid of me that easily!"

"Good, good," Becker replied smoothly. "By the way, what are you doing for dinner this evening?"

XXXX

"Talk to me Cutter, what does it look like?" Lester drawled lazily in the vague direction of the speakerphone.

"I'm not sure," Nick Cutter sighed into his bluetooth headset. "Judging by the plant life around, and bearing in mind that I'm no botanist, I think we're in the future. Nobody's spotted any sign of animal life yet though. Not unless you count the midges."

"Well, you should feel right at home then, at least. What's the weather like? Raining?"

"Actually yes, but not heavily enough to put the beasties off. Its just light smirry stuff that soaks into everything. As if the middle of a peat bog wasn't damp enough already."

"Peat bog, rain and midges?" Lester gave a short sharp laugh. "So you really have found an anomaly to the uncivilised northern wastes of your own country then? What gives you the impression that you're in the future?"

"Firstly," Cutter replied, "I'll have you know that the north of Scotland has some of the most beautiful scenery you uncultured Londoners will ever see. Secondly, 'peat bog' is a very general description. The ground beneath us is pretty much just that, mostly, but the trees around us are ones I don't recognise, covered in mosses and lichens I've never seen before, trailing vines that you just don't get in Scotland and surrounded by smaller marsh plants that are only vaguely recognisable."

"So what are you in? A marsh, a peat bog or a rainforest?"

"I'm not sure the land itself has made up its mind yet. When it does I'll let you know."

Lester sighed and hung up. Cutter turned back to face Abby, who was carefully taking samples of the plants and trying to swat as many of the midges as possible.

"Having fun?" Cutter asked.

"How come they're not bothering you?" Abby muttered slapping her arm and leaving a smudge of blood where a feeding midge had been.

"Ach, who knows. They've never bothered me in our own time either. Some folk are just like that. Others seem to attract them more than normal. You must be one of those, I'm afraid."

"Well, that's the last of the samples from the immediate area of the anomaly anyway. Can we go now?"

"Aye, let's go. We haven't seen anything with teeth yet, but we don't want to overstay our welcome."

"Speak for yourself! These things have fangs!"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

John Lester was bored. It had been a stupid idea. He realised that now. His father was always telling him that real life wasn't like Spy Kids. Children didn't wake up one morning to find out that their parents were really super cool government spies with hi-tech gadgets that looked absolutely innocent but really had little secret buttons or switches that turned them into fantastic life saving tools that nobody suspected they really were.

John Lester shifted his position curled up in the boot of Kate's car and tried to go to sleep.

XXXX

Oblivious to his son's current condition as a stowaway, Sir James Lester signed the last of the pile of paper work he had been working his way through over lunch. His expensive looking fountain pen scratched the paper awkwardly as he tried to write the date and found that, once again, technology had let him down. Sighing, he moved the papers to one side and laid the pen on the smooth surface of the desk. He reached into a drawer and took out a box of ink cartridges, placing them at one side of the pen, and started to unscrew the barrel of the fountain pen.

Carefully removing the small but deadly blade of the hidden knife, the thin metal aerial for the GPS transmitter that was installed in the lid of the pen, the serrated titanium saw blade, the file, the lock picks, the blowpipe and ultra-thin poison dart, the roll of paper and the vial of acid, Lester plucked out the empty ink cartridge, replaced it with a full one, and put the pen back together again.

"With all the money they put into these things," he muttered, "you'd think they could have made one that refilled itself by now!"

XXXX

"Do you intend to keep this up all the way to Dorset?" Becker asked as the car finally escaped the crush of traffic on the M25 and turned on to the slightly less congested London end of the M3.

Kate stared studiously out of the window, ignoring Becker in an attempt to ignore the confusing, conflicting emotions flitting across her mind. She didn't have to talk to him, after all. She had every right to ignore him after the way he had behaved. Sneaking up on her like that! Grabbing hold of her wrists, although she was trying to hit him quite hard then, so maybe he could be forgiven that one. Then stealing her keys and her car like this! And to cap it all, he had the temerity to ask her out! How dare he! As if she would dream of going out for dinner with a man like him after all of that! How DARE he!

Besides, she had nothing to wear!

XXXX

"Initial mass spectrometer results suggest the samples found date from well into the future," Nigel reported back to Peta. "We're talking millions of years into the future, here, not just next week!"

"Can you be a bit more specific?" Peta asked encouragingly.

"Not really, no," Nigel shook his head. "Since we have no way of knowing how levels of atmospheric carbon fourteen may have accelerated from here to the future that the samples came from, we have no way of calibrating the readings."

"So when you say millions, we don't know if you mean two or three million, or two or three hundred?" Peta summarised.

"That's about it, yes," Nigel nodded. "Shall I take the information up to Mr Temple?"

"No, not yet, Nigel, let him sleep," Peta sighed. "Go and see what else you can find out from the samples. I want a full report on these before we even consider waking Connor up. Nothing less than an emergency is to disturb him before we have that. Understand?"

Nigel nodded and hurried off back to the lab. Peta looked over to Luke and Guy, the technician who had completed the initial remote gas spectroscopy analysis of the anomaly's atmosphere. They were carefully removing the rover from the decontamination unit. Guy ran a small Geiger counter over the rover.

"It's clear," he said, nodding to Luke who began closing up the decontamination unit again.

"How are we doing?" Peta asked, walking over to the two men as they locked the decontamination unit and began removing their protective gear.

"All clear, ma'am" Luke replied. "There are a few minor repairs to be done and I'd like to make a couple of improvements to the rover in general, but it's good to go if you need it now."

"You're the engineer of the team, Luke. If you think there are repairs or upgrades required, then they are required. We won't need the rover for a while. What are you thinking?"

"Well, a radiation warning, for starters, ma'am, but that's more an IT programming job. I was also thinking of installing an infrared camera next to the visual one, or a capacity to switch from one light source to the other. A mini-radar system would also help over distances like the one we saw there, but that might take some time to get the parts."

"I'll speak to Nigel about the programming, or I'll do it myself," Peta nodded. "Meanwhile, get to work on the infrared camera. I think being able to see two separate feeds is preferable to having to switch between them." Peta turned to Guy, one of her two analytical chemists. "Guy, go and take over from Nigel in the lab. He always ends up getting under Sam's feet."

Guy winced, nodded and headed off to the lab. Sam was queen of the chemistry labs. Her standards were high and exacting. Everything was in its rightful place and woe betide anyone who moved anything without permission. Analytical chemistry was a science where accuracy was paramount and Sam had the accuracy that could turn a burette tap to leak drops at just one every sixty seconds exactly, but if anyone even dared breathe at the wrong moment while she was working, they could find themselves on the receiving end of some highly colourful insults!

XXXX

"James?" Lester spoke into his speakerphone and stared at his desk.

"Yes, Sir James?" Becker's voice replied.

"Any update on your ETA for the south coast anomaly?"

"Shouldn't be long now, sir, we've cleared most of the traffic and refilled with petrol."

"Why are you driving a vehicle that required you to fill up with petrol, James?"

"It's Miss Barratt's car, sir. She wasn't expecting to be going for such a long drive in it and it has a fairly small tank."

"Oh, that old rust bucket," Lester sighed, rolling his eyes. "And is Miss Barratt with you?"

"Yes, sir. She sulking in the passenger seat."

"Other than the obvious fact that she is sitting in the passenger seat of her own car, is there any particular reason for Miss Barratt to be sulking, James?"

"I can think of a few," the amusement was obvious in Becker's voice. "Although she still hasn't declined my invitation to dinner this evening, so I'm hoping it's only temporary."

"You might at least have waited until her security checks were back!" Lester muttered away from the microphone, rolling his eyes. "You always were impatient!"

"I heard that," Becker's voice replied. "I'm sorry sir, but I'm going to have to call you back. The steering in this thing gets a bit shaky once you get past seventy."

"Do try to bring it back in one piece, James. I'd hate to have to fill in yet more paperwork!"

XXXX

Abby took a swig of water and rubbed her head. Cutter was busy overseeing the safe removal of their samples to the ARC laboratories and Lester was busy talking to thin air in his soundproofed office. She'd taken a couple of painkillers half an hour ago, but they still hadn't kicked in. If anything, her headache now seemed to be getting worse. It had started in the jeep on the way back from the anomaly, but other than dehydration, stress or maybe just the sheer amount of blood lost to those midges, she couldn't pinpoint any particular cause. At least nobody would be looking for her for a while. She could go home, feed Rex and have a lie down. She wasn't even needed in the labs now that they had lab technicians to do all the hard work for them.

Yawning, Abby scrawled a note for Cutter and dropped it off on his desk on the way out. It seemed to take ages to get home through the busy London traffic, but finally she made her way through the door of her apartment and sighed in relief.

At least it was warm in here, she thought as she chopped up some fruit for a waiting Rex, whose enthusiastic greeting had been dampened by Abby's groan of pain as the high chirping noise grated against her skull.

"Yeah, alright, alright," Abby moaned as Rex bobbed his head at the fruit. "It's on its way. Ow!"

Abby looked down blearily at the source of the pain. The pale pear she had been chopping was smeared with red stuff and her finger stung. Blood. She had cut herself. She must have been more exhausted than she thought.

Dazed, Abby raised her cut hand level with her face and examined the injury. It wasn't serious. Just a thin cut into the side of her left index finger, deep enough to bleed, but shallow enough that a plaster would fix it. The blood was even starting to clot as she watched it, fascinated. Her reflexes were still working at least, even if the rest of her wasn't. What had she been going to do? Oh, yes: a plaster.

Awkwardly, trying to avoid dripping or smearing blood anywhere, Abby retrieved the kitchen first aid box and rummaged through it for a plaster. There were never at the top, no matter how many times you reordered the box that way. Eventually she found one and tore the cover off with her teeth. Removing the backing one handed was less straightforward. Where was Connor when you needed him.

Connor. Had she done the right thing? Was she a fool to let him go? Did he ever think about her? Was it too late to put things right?

Abby threw the bloodstained piece of pear into the organic waste recycling bin and scooped the rest of the chopped fruit into Rex's bowl. Followed by the prehistoric lizard, she carried the bowl through to the living area and laid it down on the table by the couch. Collapsing into comfort of the couch as Rex landed and inspected his dinner.

Shuffling round on the couch until she was in at least a semi-comfortable position, Abby curled up to sleep. Thoughts of Connor invaded her mind. He would be in her dreams again, then, she thought. As long as they were just dreams, not nightmares, though. Happy dreams, not those nightmares that had plagued her for months now. Always the same, over and over. Never changing. Nightmares about losing Connor. And yet she had lost him, hadn't she? She had walked away. She had chosen to end things. So why did the nightmares keep plaguing her? Why did she still dread them so much? Why couldn't she get him out of her head? Why now, when her body told her she needed sleep so much, did her heart decide she needed Connor?


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Kate's car jolted to a halt next to the van. They had driven through the small village of Kimmeridge in Dorset to a remote farm house and buildings surrounded by fields where they had been met by a rather plum, bespectacled young woman with a back pack who got into a battered old Volkswagen and led them down a series of farm tracks. They were now poised atop a cliff looking out into the Channel and across to Portland Bill.

"It's just down here," the plump woman called, gathering a hiking stick out of the can and shouldering her back pack once more before heading off down a footpath that led down the top of the cliff.

Glaring at the back of Becker's head as he ordered his men to follow the woman, Kate gradually became aware of a repeated knocking coming from the vicinity of her car. The boot of her car to be precise. Kate glanced over at Becker. He was starting to follow his men down the path but then, almost as if he felt her eyes on him, he turned and looked over his shoulder. Kate inclined her head in the direction of the car boot and saw Becker frown. He turned and shouted an order to his men. They stopped. Becker walked back up the hill towards a slightly sheepish Kate.

"Problem?" Becker asked, stopping less than a foot in front of Kate, considerably closer than she would have liked.

"S-Something in the boot," Kate stuttered, making a point of looking at the boot in question, rather than Becker. Technically, she decided, she still wasn't talking to him, she was just stating a fact to the world in general.

"Not investigating yourself this time?" Becker quipped.

That was it! All trace of fear, discomfort and whatever else was going on in Kate's head was immediately replaced by indignation.

"You're the security expert," she snapped. "It's your job to deal with stuff like this, not mine!"

"Technically, it's your car, therefore your responsibility," Becker replied smoothly. "Perhaps a cat crawled in and fell asleep."

"Just check the thing!" Kate yelled, waving a hand in the direction of the boot and stepping out of Becker's way.

Becker folded his arms and turn to follow Kate's movement. Kate huffed and rolled her eyes.

"Please," she added, sighing.

Becker smiled politely, nodded and turned back to the car boot. Holding his handgun ready, he eased off the catch of the boot and stepped back. For a moment, the lid of the boot remained hovering just above its catch point, then, slowly, it began to rise.

Kate held her breath, her attention torn between the car and Becker. What if it really was a deadly creature in there? What if her strop had sent Becker to his death? What if they were unleashing a deadly new predator on the world that could wipe out the whole of humanity?

Okay, maybe she was being a tiny bit melodramatic...

She frowned at the sight of Becker lowering the handgun and realised with a start that she hadn't looked at the car for a while. She remedied the situation immediately and felt her jaw drop. It wasn't a ferocious predator climbing out of the back of her car, nor was it some man-eating triffid or even, indeed, a stray cat. It was a stray child instead.

"Hi, Uncle Pete," the boy said, then, his eyes flicking quickly over to Kate and back: "I mean James. The light's really bright after being in there so long. I think my eyes need time to adjust."

"John, what are you doing here?" Becker groaned. "Your father will kill me if I don't get you back to him in one piece!"

"His father?" Kate asked, folding her arms and glaring at the two males.

"He's Lester's son," Becker explained, leaning past John and closing the boot again. "I'll have to call it in. The, er, 'incident' is going to have to wait."

Kate watched as Becker walked a short distance away and made the call to the ARC. Once she was sure his attention was otherwise engaged, she sidled over to John.

"So, John," she said, smiling sweetly. "Who's Uncle Pete?"

"Oh, ah," John laughed nervously. "The sun must have been in my eyes. I got my uncles mixed up. You know it's really dark in that boot and really bright out here..."

"Uh-huh," Kate nodded, raising an eyebrow. "Nice try, kiddo, but firstly, you're facing north. Secondly, it's cloudy. And thirdly, I know exactly how much light gets into that boot when you're hiding inside it!"

"Why would you hide in your own car boot?" John asked, bemused.

"Long story, probably better not to ask," Kate shrugged.

"Sounds like Uncle James!" John muttered.

Before Kate had a chance to interrogate the boy further, Becker turned back round and was met by two smiles of obviously fake innocence. He paused, looked from Kate to John, frowned, then continued walking over.

"Do I have to go back?" John whined, tilting his head to one side and looking up at Becker angelically in the manner of manipulative eight-year-olds everywhere.

"Hmm," Becker replied. "It does seem that you might be in luck, John. There appears to be an outbreak of some sort of flu virus in the ARC and your father wants me to keep an eye on you for the time being."

"Cool!"

"Is that safe?" Kate cut in. "Children are hardly noted for their safety skills. Especially not in situations like this!"

"We don't know what the 'situation' is yet," Becker reminded her. "Our job is to assess the 'situation' and monitor things until Cutter's team can get some back-up down here or the 'situation' disappears. Trust me, I've had more troublesome bystanders to worry about. You should know: you were one!"

"Hey! I'm a professional!"

"The only thing that makes you a professional in this job is the pay check! None of us have enough training to deal with every possibility. We just have to do the best we can. Right now, the best we can involves taking John with us and keeping him out of trouble. Since you're such an expert in causing it, you can have that job!"

John stood looking up at the two adults, his gaze moving from one to the other like an observer at a tennis match. As their argument had progressed, they had closed in on each other until they were almost nose to nose. Now they were frozen, neither willing to be the first to back down and both oblivious to their audience. Feeling vaguely intrusive, the boy coughed politely and grinned up as two faces looked down at him.

"So where are we going?" John asked.

XXXX

Connor sat on the side of the bed, reading through the report that Peta had brought to him. It certainly was just as well that they hadn't sent a manned vehicle through instead of a remote one: anyone who had spent an hour or so through there without protective clothing would be seriously regretting it by now.

"And this is everything we could get from the samples we took?" Connor asked, rubbing a hand over his still tired eyes.

"There are one or two other tests Sam wants to do, but they take time," Peta replied. "This is everything we have so far."

Connor nodded and stared at the page, blinking. Everything was slightly blurry. The two or three hours of sleep that he had managed to grab had done little to make up for the two or three days worth that he hadn't.

"I need a coffee," he groaned, pushing himself to his feet. "And I suppose somebody ought to let Lester know."

"I can do that, if you like," Peta offered.

"Nah, don't worry about it. It's better coming from me, anyway. Just try and make sure I don't walk into anything on the way to the door, right."

XXXX

Helen watched as her army of clones preceded her through the anomaly. It was an anomaly she had created, with the help of this lovely future technology that Cai had been so willing to part with, and she knew there would be no surprises waiting on the other side of it. Not like the one that had been waiting on the other side of the anomaly her ex-husband had recently investigated. She looked over to the younger version of Nick Cutter double checking his rucksack a meter or so away from her. The time in the caves had done its work. Not only was he as devoted to her as he had ever been, but even Connor hadn't spotted the lack of a few years in her new partner's face.

So far, so good. The boy wonder had finally worked out that his pet anomaly was more than he had bargained for. Soon, if Helen's calculations and new knowledge of the future was correct, Connor would have to make use of his changeable new toy. It wasn't her doing. She hadn't caused the crisis that was now fast approaching. She had merely ready the signs and given a key player a nudge in the right direction.

After all, she thought, these things were never the end. Only a new beginning.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"What's the diagnosis?" Lester asked as Cutter emerged from the isolation room.

"He's sick," Cutter replied, discarding the face mask, paper suit and latex gloves he had been wearing.

"Full marks for observation, Professor. You truly are worth your weight in gold! No mere mortal could possibly have worked that one out!"

"Diagnoses do not appear when you snap your fingers, Lester," Cutter chided, swabbing down a syringe of blood with alcohol and cotton wool before transferring the blood to a sterile vial and discarding the syringe and a second pair of gloves into the same biohazard bin as the clothes.

"Well what do I have to do to make them appear?" Lester muttered, unrepentant.

"You have to wait," Cutter sighed. "Wait and pray that this blood will be enough to tell us what is going on here."

"Hmm," Lester wasn't convinced. He decided to change tactics. "Where is Miss Maitland, by the way?"

"I have no idea, Lester," said Cutter, his patience wearing thin. "Probably off looking after her lab or in the gym or mooning about wondering if she did the right thing staying in this dump instead of running off into the sunset with Connor. Now will you let me get on with my work?"

"You do realise why I'm asking, Cutter?" Lester frowned.

"Your usual determination to keep tabs on us every second of every day?" Cutter sighed.

"That too, but also the minor fact that, should this mystery illness be anomaly related, not only have a considerable number of my military staff been exposed, so have both Miss Maitland and yourself."

Cutter stopped and considered this.

"Okay, you have a point," he conceded. "I'm not ill, though."

"Well, perhaps the illness doesn't like you. It wouldn't be alone."

"Perhaps," Cutter nodded. He remained silent for a few moments, thinking back to the last time he had seen Abby. He had been so busy overseeing the placement and testing of the samples that he hadn't even sat down since he got back, except for the minute or so when he took the blood from the infected soldier in the room behind him. "Send somebody to look for her. She'll be around somewhere," he said. "I'll take this back to the lab and start analysis. There are several hungry vampires waiting to get their teeth into it."

"Vampires?" Lester queried.

"Haematologists," Cutter explained, heading out of the prep room and leaving Lester on his own.

Lester moved his gaze from the doorway to the window of the isolation room and the sick soldier within. It had to be anomaly related of course. The only cases of the mysterious illness were those who had been through the anomaly at his son's school. Approximately half of those who had spent time on the other side of that anomaly were now showing signs of illness. Of the other half, some had changed shift and gone home, a few were unaffected at present, and a few, like Miss Maitland, were still unaccounted for. He already had his ARC based staff combing the building for them, complete with strict instructions that they were not to touch any of the individuals, should they find them, until the proper protective clothing had been issued.

Footsteps echoed behind Lester and he turned, half hoping to see Cutter back with some news. Instead, he found his new PA hovering in the doorway.

"Telephone call, sir," the PA intoned politely. "Mr Temple for you."

XXXX

Kate, Becker, John and their entourage stood at the foot of the cliff. The path they had followed took them down a slope that brought them all the way down to beach level. They had then scrambled, stumbled and tripped across the rocky beach after their eccentric guide, whom Kate had now discovered was one Elizabeth Docherty, part-owner of the farm, part-time writer and avid collector of fossils. What lay before them now, other than yet more rocks, was and anomaly that appeared to be protruding directly out of the cliff face.

"When... How, did you discover it?" Becker asked Elizabeth, reaching out and hooking a finger into John's collar as the boy began to edge towards the anomaly.

"Oh, you know," Elizabeth replied cheerfully. "I just came down to see what the high tide had washed up, or out, and there it was. Didn't have a clue what it was, of course. Not until I found a real one, that is."

"Real one?" Kate frowned.

"Real, live ammonite," Elizabeth nodded. "Sitting there on the rocks waving it's tentacles at me bold as brass! Probably hadn't a clue what had happened to it, poor thing. Anyway, right behind it, directly up the shore, was that thing. I picked a pebble up, flint, mind you: nothing that might have something valuable in it, and threw it at the thing, just to make sure it wasn't a trick of the light, and it went straight through. It was all just a matter of logic after that. The ammonite must have been washed through at high tide, and then got stuck here. Interesting. I wonder how many others came through and escaped to the open sea. Or what went back the other way, for that matter."

Kate glanced over at Becker, whose grip on John's collar had tightened. He looked over and caught Kate's eye.

"What?" Kate hissed.

"Well?" Becker replied. "Where does it go?"

"Don't look at me!" Kate shrugged. "Ammonites were around from the Silurian right up to the end of the Cretaceous! They overlap and pre-date all of the dinosaur eras. Which one are you hoping for? Take your pick!"

XXXX

"My lady," Cai gasped, his breath catching in his throat as he hurried down the stone steps in the caves. "I wasn't expecting you back so soon!"

"I had to make sure I was back in time Cai," Helen replied, taking the arm that was offered as she ascended the stairs. "Have there been any other breaches?"

"None, my lady," Cai answered. "Not in your absence. All others you know of."

"Good. You must expect one soon. It may appear at any time."

"In the usual place?"

"No, Cai," Helen shook her head. "This breach will occur where radiation levels are dangerously high. Averaging two point five Seiverts. Temperature at twenty five degrees centigrade. There will be a number of appearances before anything comes through, but the moment one appears, you must call me immediately, regardless of the time of day. Do you understand?"

"Yes, my lady," Cai nodded. "What do you expect to see come through the breach?"

"We must keep watch with the satellites," said Helen. "But the first time something comes through it will probably be an antiquated probe in the form of a buggy or 'rover'. The first of the Temple series probes. After that, you must look for the man himself. He will have a team with him, twelve at most, but they will not have anti-radiation suits for all of them and the ones they do have are considerably worse than those you have here. You must have a team ready to be despatched with twelve spare suits and transport as soon as you spot them. It is absolutely crucial that you are ready, Cai. We cannot afford delay. Do you understand?"

"Yes, my lady."

"Good," Helen nodded as they came to the top of the stairs and continued along winding, disorientating corridors.

Silence fell on the group as they made their way through the labyrinthine tunnels. Finally, they emerged into a wider area where glowing spheres hanging from the ceiling replaced the wall-mounted bioluminescent strips that had lit their way from the entrance. Cai led the group off down a side corridor and through a door, waiting by a control panel until everyone was inside the room.

Once the multiple cleaners had filled the space, Cai pressed a few buttons on the control panel. The pressure of the room lifted and the air became momentarily thinner and colder, then returned to normal. Cai pressed another few buttons and a door on the far side of the chamber opened. Helen led her troops through and watched, the younger Nick by her side, as they filed away into another part of the caves.

"What now?" Nick asked.

"Now?" Helen replied with a smile. "Now, my love, we save the world."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Sorry for the delay folks - I had reports to write.**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

Professor Nick Cutter hammered on the door of the apartment. It had taken him all of ten minutes to hand the blood vial in to the lab for testing, then adjourn to his office for the first time since arriving back at the ARC. As soon as he opened the door, he spotted the sheet of paper on his desk. A quick glance told him that Abby had gone home. On its own, that wouldn't have worried him. It was the fact that she had gone home with a headache that had done that.

The fact that she hadn't answered any of his many phone calls, either to her land line or mobile, and now wasn't answering her door, worried him even more.

Something caught Cutter's attention and he grew silent, listening. It was a chirping noise. Rex. Cutter looked around for the source of the sound and quickly spotted the ancient lizard at one of the ground floor windows. He was chirping more than usual in a way that suggested agitation or a warning call. Cutter hurried to the window and peered in. Abby was lying on the sofa, unmoving. Cutter shouted in to her, but she remained still. Nothing Cutter did could wake her. Frustratingly, Cutter spotted Abby's keys on the table by the sofa, where she had dropped both them and her handbag as soon as she had arrived.

Rex chirped again. It was louder this time, but it came from higher up. Cutter looked for the lizard and spotted him at the top of the window, where it was open just enough for him to stick his head through and chirp at Cutter. Suddenly, Cutter had an idea. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his own keys, dangling them at arms length. The lizard's head twisted from side to side as he followed the movement.

"That's right Rex," Cutter called up. "I need these to get it. Where are Abby's, Rex? Go fetch them for me. Go on. Fetch!"

Cutter almost laughed in delight when Rex suddenly disappeared from the opening and glided down to the arm of the sofa. Nosing the bundle of keys on the table until the fell on to the floor with a jangling noise just like Cutter's keys had made, Rex hopped down, picked up the keys and flapped his way back up to the window. Wriggling both head and keys through the gap again, Rex peered down at Cutter like a green scaly spaniel with wings.

"Good boy, Rex," said Cutter, relief showing in his voice as much as the genuine smile that flooded his face. "Now drop them, Rex. Drop them down to me."

Much to Cutter's chagrin, the lizard did not drop the keys. Instead, he merely waved them back and forth as Cutter had done with his own, making them jangle again.

Cutter tried again, but got the same response. Running a hand through his hair, he wondered how to make Rex understand. Suddenly it clicked. The lizard was copying him. He took out his keys again and waved them back and forth. Rex did the same. He shook them. Rex did the same. He dropped them.

Rex did the same.

Scrambling forwards and picking up both sets of keys in one go, Cutter rushed for the door. The third key he tried fitted the lock, but it took another two to turn it and unlock the door. As fast as his legs could carry him, Cutter ran to Abby's side and placed one hand on her forehead, the other checking her neck for a pulse.

The pulse was there, but it was way too fast. Her forehead was hot and feverish. Whatever the soldiers at the ARC had, she had too. Dragging his mobile out of his pocket, he dialled the emergency services and demanded an ambulance.

"What do you mean there aren't any!" Cutter yelled down the phone as panic began to set in.

XXXX

"Look on the bright side," Kate whispered, "Nothing else has come through it yet."

"I'm more worried about what might come through it at any moment!" Becker hissed back.

They were standing to one side of the anomaly. Half of Becker's men were ranged in front of it, standing guard. The other half were sitting on the rocks, resting and waiting to take their turn. John was asking Elizabeth questions about ammonites.

"There might not be much on the other side," Kate shrugged. "We could always stick our heads through and check."

"Oh, and do what when it closes with you on the other side? Or worse, half on one side, half on the other? What if it's like Jurassic Park on the other side of there: t-rex and velociraptors all over the place?"

"Firstly, if it was, they'd have come through by now," Kate explained patiently. "Secondly, contrary to popular opinion, t-rex didn't exist in the Jurassic period, it came along much later. The film got it wrong."

"Were ammonites around at the same time as t-rex?"

"Well, yes, but.."

"Then what's your point?" Becker glared.

"Why are you so worried about a t-rex?"

"I'm just considering the worst case scenario!"

"Believe me, there's a lot worse than a t-rex!"

"Oh, I feel so reassured!"

"Look, I'm going to have a look," Kate sighed, "I'll just be a minute. I'll come right back. I promise."

"No way," Becker replied, grabbing Kate's wrist and pulling her back. She whirled to face him.

"Let me go!" Kate snapped. "I will hit you!"

"You can try," Becker replied lightly. "I'll just pick you up, carry you over to that massive boulder over there, tie you up and leave you on the top of it!"

"You wouldn't dare!" Kate scoffed.

"Try me!" Becker growled, his patience wearing thin.

XXXX

"I've got a signal again."

"Let me see!"

"No new messages."

"Give it time."

Claudia Brown and Jenny Lewis huddled round the light of Claudia's mobile. They didn't switch it on often, to conserve the battery, but sometimes they found that they had a signal and other times they didn't. Jenny's phone had long since died. Being less practical than Claudia, its battery had been as low as mere quarter when Jenny had been kidnapped and when that had gone, Jenny had thrown it at the wall in frustration, breaking it. What was more, Claudia had announced that she always carried a spare battery, just in case she were trapped somewhere.

They had found, by intelligence and observation, that there tended to be a signal available when the small, red light on the wall opposite was lit. Jenny had sweet-talked one of the guards into charging the first battery when it had ran out, leaving them with the spare to run the phone on.

It had taken them a long time to get their heads around each other's presence, but now they were a team, working untiringly on a way to get out of their sunless prison. They had theorised that they were in the future, hypothesised that the signal on the phone arrived whenever an anomaly to their own time opened, and agreed that Helen was a female canine who should be despatched as soon as possible should the opportunity arise. They had steered clear of any discussion about Nick Cutter.

"Are you sure you don't know anyone else's number?" Claudia sighed.

"None that are useful," Jenny replied, shaking her head. "The only numbers I ever learned off the top of my head were my mother's, my ex-fiancé's and my hair stylist's. The only reason I can remember Connor's is because it's so similar Sergei's!"

"Sergei?" Claudia queried blankly.

"Hair stylist," Jenny explained.

XXXX

"Kate, Uncle James, come and look at this!" John Lester called, breaking the glaring contest currently going on between Kate and Becker. Having caught their attention, the young boy waved a rock in the air.

Shaking her wrist free of Becker's grasp, Kate began making her way over to John, Becker rolled his eyes and followed her. When they reached John, and Elizabeth, who was standing beside the boy looking like a mother hen, they saw that the rock John held out to them had an odd formation sticking out of its side.

"It's a fossil!" John announced proudly. "Beth helped me find it. It's an ammonite just like the alive one Beth found!"

"Oh, so it is!" Kate smiled, taking the fossil ammonite and turning it in her hands. "Well done, John. Fossils are quite hard to find."

"Not on this beach they aren't," replied Elizabeth. "And the boy is right: that fossil is exactly the same as the living specimen, just a bit smaller."

"Why is that important?" Becker frowned.

"Because, dear boy," Elizabeth explained patiently. "It means that the living creature I found here this morning is from the same time period as the fossil in this stone."

"And do you know when that is?" Becker asked.

"Of course I do," Elizabeth sniffed. "All the rocks around here like this are from the Kimmeridgian era."

Becker stared at Elizabeth blankly.

"The what?" Kate asked, looking equally puzzled.

"Do you know nothing child?" Elizabeth sighed. "The Kimmeridgian is the second last era of the Jurassic period!"

"But hey, at least there's no t-rex!" Becker groaned.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Nick Cutter was tearing his hair out.

Abby wouldn't wake up. Her fever was getting worse. Her pulse was getting weaker.

There were no ambulances. The infection, virus, whatever, had already spread throughout London. Lester had closed the ARC's doors to them. He said that their only chance was to keep the soldiers currently suffering in isolation and not allow anyone else in the building. He said not to bother calling back: he wouldn't be there. He said he had already given his orders to Becker and Connor and they were safe, or should be if they did as they were told.

Cutter's mind reeled. Every time an anomaly had opened they had waited with baited breath to see what massive, sharp-toothed, bloodthirsty beast would come through to terrorise their world. Every time one had, they had trapped it, killed it or herded it back through to its own time, or to oblivion. Never had they considered the possibility of an invisible threat. Not once had Cutter considered the multitude of primitive or future microbes waiting for a suitable host to appear to carry them through to a word where they could flourish. It had been unthinkable.

But now the unthinkable was reality.

London was in chaos. Roads were blocked. Hospitals were full. People were panicking. Almost every person Cutter saw, as he stared helplessly out of the window of Abby's flat, showed symptoms of the illness. An illness with no cure, that took over the body more rapidly than any virus or infection he had ever seen. Cutter turned and slumped back against the window and wall, sliding down until he was sitting huddled with his back to the wall and his eyes locked on Abby's unconscious figure.

Connor and Becker had been given their orders, Lester had said. What orders? Did they even know what was happening here? Would he be able to get in touch with them? Everything was slipping away from him. Abby, right in front of him. Connor and his team. Becker and Kate, wherever they had disappeared to. Even Lester!

Just like Helen had slipped away through the anomalies all those years ago.

Just like Stephen had slipped away into that hellhole of creatures, giving up his own life to save his friends and the world.

Just like Claudia slipped away out of his reality.

Just like Jenny had...

Jenny...

Jenny Lewis...

Helen...

Her last words to him...

Jenny, or Claudia?

She had them both.

Suddenly, Cutter's mind reeled with memories. Memories his brain had been suppressing in the blind attempt to deal with the momentous revelation his ex-wife had dumped on him. The hotel up in Seahouses. The nothosaurus beach. The kiss...

Cutter drew his hands down over his face, aghast. How much time had passed since then? How long had Helen had Jenny, and Claudia, in her grasp? How could he get them back?

A flash and a now familiar noise drew Cutter's attention. An anomaly. Right in the middle of Abby's living room. Cutter scrambled to his feet. A memory pushed itself forward in his mind. Helen, creating an anomaly and carrying Jenny off through it. He rushed to Abby's side, standing in front of her protectively. He watched and waited as a figure began to emerge through the sparkling aperture.

XXXX

"Explain to me why we're doing this?" Kate hissed.

"You were the one who wanted to have a look at what was on the other side," Becker replied, keeping his eyes on the dense, alien foliage ahead of them.

"Any you were dead set against it," Kate reminded him, not giving up. "Suddenly, one phone call from Lester later, and we're all through on the other side. Just like that. No going up to the farmhouse or the village for extra supplies. No leaving a guard on the other side. No shooing away the innocent bystanders. We're all, every one of us, on the Jurassic side on an anomaly that might close at any time with no extra supplies!"

"You know, my men do carry more than just guns and ammunition. We do have some supplies with us. In fact, we're probably better prepared for getting stuck on the far side of an anomaly than we've ever been in the past. I've made sure of that!"

"Well aren't you the regular boy scout!"

"When I got this job I asked Lester what sort of scenarios I should expect. He said 'all the unexpected ones'."

"And what unexpected scenario has made Lester order us through here? We're not even watching the anomaly any more! It could close at any time and then we'd never get back..."

"We're not going back," sighed Becker, keeping his voice so low that only Kate heard.

"What!" Kate shrieked.

Everyone stopped and turned to look at her. Becker stopped walking, stifled a sigh and the urge to roll his eyes and thought fast. Ahead of them and to the right was a rocky cliff face. The way the land sloped down to it suggested a river at the bottom. That would give them fresh water at least, maybe some shelter in the form of a cave.

"Look, whether you like it or not," he said, loudly so that everyone could hear him this time. "We're going to be spending tonight at least in a cave, if we can find one. I'd rather take my chances with the dark and the spiders than out in the open round here!"

Everyone looked from Becker to the cliff face. Good, that meant they had bought the lie. That would buy him some time. As long as Kate didn't pick this moment in time to start another argument. He shouted an order to two of his men to go on ahead and scout out the area. As they ran on towards the cliff, the rest of the party resumed their slow march. Becker hung back and was relieved that Kate took the hint and stayed silently by his side.

"What's going on?" Kate hissed, once they had started walking again.

"Lester has a minor situation on his hands and he has given us specific orders to follow."

"Horse manure. There's nothing minor about sending your son through a Jurassic anomaly."

"Okay, so it's not so minor."

"I'm going to need a little more detail than that, soldier boy."

"Don't you have any patience? And don't call me soldier boy."

"None whatsoever. And as long as you are holding out on me, I'll call you whatever I like."

"Fine. Just keep your voice down and keep it to yourself until I can find a way to break the news to everyone without causing panic and a riot!"

"Wow, you really know how to sugar-coat things!"

"Trust me: this will take a bit more than just sugar-coating."

"Well?"

"You know the anomaly you missed?"

"Only by your constant reference to my lateness."

"A virus came through."

"That doesn't sound healthy."

"It's in the process of wiping out London."

Kate stopped dead. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up. She could feel sweat forming on her brow. With a start, she realised she'd forgotten to breathe. She dragged in a gulp of air, forcing her lungs to work normally and trying to ignore the lump in her throat and the stinging at her eyes.

"Connor and his team received the same orders as us," Becker continued softly. "Take whoever you've got with you and get through an anomaly now. The ARC has gone into lock down. They have enough stores there to last a considerable time, as well as facilities to grow plants and recycle water."

"So Cutter, Abby and Lester are safe?" Kate gasped.

Becker shook his head.

"From what Lester told me, Abby already had the virus, although Cutter seems immune so far. Cutter went to her flat to check on her and found her unconscious. He was about to call an ambulance last time Lester spoke to him. Lester called Connor, told him the details, then called me. He said he just had to get in touch with Cutter again, then he was done."

"Done?" Kate frowned.

"Lester's a family man, Kate," Becker shrugged. "Despite everything you see at work, they are his priority. He knows that John is safe, because he's with us, away from the virus, but the rest of his family had already been exposed. His wife was already sick when he called me. He told me so. He's going home to take care of her and their other kids."

"But he'll die."

Becker nodded.

"Sir James Lester is the bravest man I know," he said, refusing to meet Kate's gaze. "Everything he has done, he has done to keep his family safe, not himself. Now they are in danger and the only thing he can do is be with them, even if it does mean that he dies too. He can't bring them back to the ARC. That would negate their isolation and could kill everyone not yet exposed to the virus. He couldn't go to them and come back for the same reason. That said, his only choices were to sit and watch his family die from a distance, or to be with them and take the same risk. If he can get them far enough away to wait out the virus, he will, but the chances of that happening are pretty slim."

Kate rocked back on her heels, shell shocked.

"So you think this will take out more than just London?"

"I think it could take out the vast majority of the human population," Becker held out a hand to her. "Not just in Britain, but world-wide. You, me, Connor and the people we've brought with us might be the last groups of humans left alive. It's our job now to find a way through to somewhere where we can find out what the virus is and how we can stop it, then, if we're lucky, find a way home."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Connor stared blearily at the desolate scene in front of him. He was functioning on autopilot. Peta had taken charge now. From the moment Connor had hung up the phone, she had known something was wrong. It was probably the dead feeling inside of him showing through in his face. He always had been rubbish at hiding his feelings, at least from anyone that was looking for them.

He had repeated Lester's mostly one sided conversation to Peta and the others in the room without moving his eyes off the blank patch of the wall opposite. He had focussed on that wall, willing it to keep him together while he repeated the order to evacuate through their pet anomaly. The wall had fulfilled its new role faithfully all the way through the terrifying revelation, right up until it reached the part that terrified Connor the most. Right up until Peta asked him about Abby.

It was then that the he crumbled. The mere mention of her name had made him feel like someone had punched him in the gut. He had doubled up, folding himself into his chair with his head in his hands, feeling the tears slide silently down his cheeks as silence descended around him. It was then, right then, that Peta had taken over.

Radiation suits were found. Six of them. Lots were cast for who got them and who had to make do with the six standard biohazard suits. Everything edible was packed. Blankets, clothes, first aid equipment, firearms: anything potentially useful was found and packed up in as much lead, foil or even just paper that the group could find. Some went into backpacks, most went onto a pair of hand carts that had been used to move gear around the relatively new building. The rover was hastily fitted with solar panels and packed away, only to be used if necessary. The anomaly was closed and reopened a number of times in the hope that it would revert back to the nothosaurus beach of the wilder, but less radioactive, Triassic.

The anomaly had remained stubbornly bleak.

Now they were walking across that same black, charred landscape that had shocked them all so recently, walking away from yet another, greater shock. Connor could hear Peta's voice in his earpiece, but he didn't register anything in her conversation. His mind was stuck on one question, and one question only.

How could he save Abby?

XXXX

"How long, Cai?" Helen asked as she watched the stumbling party of twelve making their way haphazardly across the view on her monitor.

"At maximum speed, the transport should take no more than ten minutes to reach the anomaly site, my lady," Cai replied. "Professor Temple and his team are walking towards us at an estimated speed of four kilometres per hour, and the transport left approximately one minute ago. That means it should take approximately seven point three six minutes for the transport to reach them if they continue on their current trajectory."

"Good," Helen nodded, her eyes remaining fixed on the screen. "But remember Cai: Connor Temple is not a professor yet, just a young man trying to find a way to save the woman he loves. Always refer to him as Mr Temple, unless he tells you otherwise."

"Yes, my lady."

Helen turned to the man on her other side, the slightly younger version of her ex-husband, stolen from another universe. She cast her eyes over the similarities and differences. His hair was longer than her husband's, but it was still that sandy colour that had always made he think of summer days. His eyes were the same blue too, but with fewer lines around their edges. They shared the same genius, the same passion, for seeing a wealth of information in the tiniest of details. As long as the details belonged to anything other than a human of course. That had always been his weakness: when it came to people, her Nick Cutter had never been able to see what was going on right under his nose. This one didn't seem to either.

"There are two people I would like to take you to, Nick," said Helen smoothly.

"Anyone I know?" Nick asked casually, following Helen to the door.

"Not from your world, no," Helen frowned. "At least I don't think so. It's always difficult to be sure in these areas. They will know you though. That I am sure of."

XXXX

Becker sat with his back to the cave, whittling a point onto the end of a piece of driftwood gathered from the shore of the river. There were good points and bad points about the position of their cave. One of the good points was that it had a nearby source of fresh water which doubled up as a moat to keep out smaller carnivores. One of the bad points was that to a large carnivore, their moat would be little more than a puddle to splash through. There was also the possibility that all sorts of creatures might come down to the river to drink.

Becker winced as his knife jammed in the wood and took off a larger splinter than he had wanted. He wasn't concentrating. His thoughts were all over the place. He lowered the knife and the makeshift spear and let out a long sigh. They had taken the news better than he'd expected, although the mood was still very shocked back in the camp. He had told them once they had lit the fire. Everyone was sitting down. Everyone was still. They all listened in silence as he broke the news to them. The news that they could never go home. The news that everyone they knew and loved was going to die, or possibly already had. That was the point that had stuck in his memory the most. The silence that followed that statement, broken sharply by the wail of grief from John. The boy had cried loudly for a long time after that and that was what Becker couldn't take. That was why he had got up and left the relative warmth and safety of the cave to sit in the early evening chill of a darkening Jurassic sky.

"Didn't you say something about taking me out for dinner," said Kate's voice suddenly.

Becker jumped. He hadn't heard her approach. Yet another sign that he wasn't doing his job properly. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as Kate sat down beside him, handing him a mug as she settled herself on the rocky banking.

"It's tea," Kate explained, watching Becker examine the contents of the mug. "No milk, no sugar and weak, but at least it's tea."

"I didn't put tea in the emergency ration packs," Becker muttered, sounding somewhat dazed.

"It was in Elizabeth's pack. Apparently she always carries a small bag of tea bags and a flask of freshly boiled water. There was about twenty or so bags. We made one do for all of us."

"Ten cups of tea from one tea bag? I'm not sure whether to be impressed or worried!"

"It's not too bad. And it was nine cups, not ten. John's asleep."

Becker nodded and took a sip of his tea, focussing on the river below them. The light was fading fast now and the first glimmer of stars were reflecting back at him in the rippling water.

Kate watched Becker's profile in silence. She wasn't sure of what to say. She wasn't even sure if she was welcome any more. She certainly wasn't sure what was going on in Becker's head right now. She knew he was friends with Lester. She could tell that he was taking the death of his friend badly, who wouldn't. The problem was that whatever grief, anger or frustration he was feeling right now, he was keeping to himself, and that wasn't healthy. He seemed so distant, so out of reach, that she was beginning to wonder what deeper changes had occurred within this man that she knew so very little about.

"Come back inside," Kate whispered. "It's getting cold out here."

"Somebody has to keep watch," Becker replied without looking at her.

"But not you," Kate shook her head. "You're tired. You haven't eaten."

"We're all tired," Becker sighed. "I'm their leader. I've just dumped the bombshell of a lifetime on them. I can't expect them to stand guard like nothing's happened."

"Well, tough, because you don't have much choice!" Kate's voice rose in volume slightly and Becker looked round. "Everyone's had that bombshell dropped on them," she continued. "You just as much as anyone else here! Plus, if you are our leader now, then you need to be alert and thinking straight or you're going to end up getting us in an even worse mess!"

Becker let out a short, involuntary laugh.

"Because things can get so much worse!"

"Actually, yes, they could," Kate retorted. "We're alive. We're all fit and healthy. We have some food. We have a good water supply. We have a reasonably safe shelter. We have a fire burning to keep us warm. Take away any of those and you're making things worse. Especially if you take away either of the first two!"

Becker shook his head, laughing quietly.

"You know," he said, handing the empty mug back to Kate. "You really do have a gift for seeing things in a completely bizarre way."

"It's not bizarre, it's the truth," Kate shrugged, taking the mug and standing up. "Now are you coming back inside?"

"Is John really asleep?" Becker asked, looking up at Kate in the starlight.

"He is," Kate nodded, black curls bouncing against the inky sky. "I think the crying after the long trek and all the excitement this morning just exhausted him completely. Elizabeth is looking after him. He seems to have taken a shine to her."

"Who's looking after Elizabeth?" Becker asked, getting to his feet and picking up the knife and spear.

"She seems okay," Kate shrugged. "She said she was on her own anyway: no family, only a few distant friends she hardly ever sees. Apparently she'd always wanted to be a part of one of her own stories and this seems to be close enough."

"And the men?"

"Hard to tell. They've all gone into their own little huddle."

"And you?"

Kate swallowed and glanced at her feet. He had stepped closer to her now and she could feel the warmth radiating from his body. She forced herself to concentrate on the question.

"I'll survive," she said. "I always do."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Connor Temple stared blankly at the back of the seat in front of him. Had his mind been able to register anything other than the searing pain of realising that the woman he loved was dead or dying, then he might have been surprised to be confronted with a transport vehicle that looked as though it had emerged straight from the reels of one of his favourite sci-fi movies. Perhaps he would have offered some resistance when the strangers emerged from the transport and began hustling his team up the ramp into the hovering van. He might even have noted with interest the differences between the strangers and his own people.

Instead, he had allowed himself to be led into the rear of the hovercraft like a blind man, heedless of the world around him. He had offered no complaint when strange hands guided him into a high backed chair and strapped him in securely. He had barely registered the increase in pressure pushing him back into the chair as the hovercraft zoomed off, retracing its approach like a crayfish in retreat. He didn't even notice the sonic boom as the craft hit the speed of sound. He simply sat there, unseeing, unhearing, thinking only of Abby and how he might possibly save her. If he could save her.

He ignored the curious murmuring going on around him. He ignored Peta's gentle enquiry, asking if he was okay. It wasn't so much a question as an attempt at conversation. A way of getting him to talk about why he was not okay. But that wasn't something he could do. Not right now.

He barely registered the air being expelled sharply from his lungs as the hovercraft came to a sudden halt. Mechanically, he released the catch on the safety harness and followed the others out of the hovercraft into the dull light of the underground hangar. Without bothering to look around him, he followed the group out of the hangar and up a flight of dimly lit stairs, ignoring the strange hand that sometimes reached out to steady him when his foot missed a step.

Wordlessly, he allowed himself to be led away from the rest of his team, ignoring Peta's worried stare as a stranger gently blocked her way. He took little notice of the wider corridor he was being led down, one stranger on either side of him, their hands gently, but firmly, on his upper arms. He didn't spot the light gradually getting brighter until a door in front of him opened and he was guided through into a room bathed in blinding light.

The physical pain of the bright light searing through into his retinas shook Connor out of his numb trance and he raised a hand to his eyes, shielding them from the unidentified light source. As the glare began to clear he started to make out the shape of figures standing in the room before him. One figure, notably shorter than the rest, raised a hand and the lights dimmed slightly. Connor's eyes watered and he pressed the heels of his hands into them, breathing rapidly like someone newly awakened from a dream.

When his breathing slowed and the pain subsided, Connor lowered his hands, wiping them in the same motion. He blinked a few times, focussing on the floor before trying anything so complicated as a face. When he did look up, the face he saw made him frown in confusion, then in anger.

"You!" Connor spat, Helen's smiling countenance now filling his view. "Is this your doing then? Wipe out humanity? Clear the way for real animals?"

Helen laughed and smiled benignly.

"No, this wasn't my doing," she replied. "I did what I could to try and stop it, but, apparently, I don't have the right gifts."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you know where you are, Connor?"

"Just a shot in the dark, here, but I'm guessing we're not in the past."

"Correct."

"And? Knowing we're in the future hardly changes anything."

"Doesn't it?" Helen turned and walked around the room. "Look around you, Connor, and what do you see? A dead world? Not entirely."

"Hardly the green and pleasant land we left behind though, is it? But never mind: humans are still around so anything can happen. Right?"

"More to the point, what hasn't happened?"

Connor frowned at Helen, wondering what she was getting at. Surely Cutter would have been better placed to answer her infuriating riddles. Finally, he worked it out.

"We're still here. We didn't die out."

"Right again. Keep going."

"If we didn't die out, then that has to mean the virus didn't kill everyone."

"Good. Now what does that mean?"

"That it wasn't as dangerous as we thought, or that we managed to isolate it until it burned itself out. Ran out of hosts."

"Not quite," Helen stopped walking and turned to face Connor. "The historical records of this place are excellent," she said. "They give the detailed story of how, on the very same day you walked through that little anomaly of yours, a mystery virus, originating in London, began to sweep its way across what was then England, shortly followed by the rest of the world. The virus was swift and deadly. Almost everyone exposed to the virus died within one single day of catching it."

Connor paled at the renewed image of Abby dying from this mystery illness, beyond his reach and without even knowing just how much he loved her. Suddenly a word sprung out at him, like a beacon of hope on a stormy night.

"Almost," he said, grasping at the word like a drowning man grasps at a straw. "You said Almost everyone died."

Helen nodded like a teacher proud that her student has finally learnt the lesson in front of him.

"In every population of every species there is variation," she said. "Those species that reproduce sexually, whose offspring are formed from a mixture of two parents' genetic material, show greater variety. That variety leads to random immunity to new forms of disease. Perhaps one in every million, or ten million even, might be immune, but in a species whose numbers are in the billions, that is still enough to survive. Those who survive to reproduce will pass that immunity on to at least most of their offspring. Gradually the species will evolve and the threat will pass."

"And Abby?" Connor asked, desperate for his hopes to be vindicated. "Was she immune? Did she survive?"

"She caught the virus, Connor. Just like almost everyone else around her. Whether she survives, however, is now up to you."

XXXX

Becker rubbed a hand across his eyes. The gentle sounds of people moving in their sleep reassured him that all hell had not yet broken loose. What then had woken him? It was still dark. No faint dawn light filtered through the entrance of the cave. He cast a glance in the direction of the fire. It was still burning. The guard watching over it was the second of the two to whom he had given the duty, proving that it was now well into the small hours of the morning. The guard was sitting still, his breathing regular. Becker wondered if he was asleep. He could hardly blame him if he was. They were all exhausted.

So what had woken him? Any noise from the fire would surely have roused the guard. Becker rolled over and spotted what was missing. He stretched a hand out to the empty blanket by his side. Kate. Where had she gone? He lifted himself up onto his elbows and scanned the cave, all that he could see of it. She wasn't inside. He looked behind him. Surely she wouldn't have gone further into the cave on her own and without a light. Outside then. He dragged himself to his feet, picking up the blanket and wrapping it round his shoulders against the night chill. Carefully avoiding stepping on anyone, he picked his way through the sleeping bodies to the edge of the cave.

The shape of the cave and the overhanging entrance made it difficult to see exactly what was outside the cave until he was almost at the very mouth of it. Stepping out into the clear starlight he saw her, sitting a few feet away with her back to the rock wall, staring up at the sky. For a moment he just watched her, taking in her appearance. The black curls hung loosely down across her shoulders. The light, summer jacket she had on was pulled tightly round her torso, covering almost all of the colourful halter neck underneath. Her legs were bare from half-way down the calf, where her pedal-pusher trousers stopped short. In the dim light of the moon and stars, they looked pale, almost deathly white. Her bare toes moved in her sandals and he realised he was staring.

She heard him as he walked towards her and looked round. He hadn't made any attempt to hide his approach, but when she spotted him he froze, feeling ridiculously guilty, like an intruder to a private conversation. Kate smiled and he relaxed, crossing the rest of the distance between them and sitting down by her side. He wrapped the blanket around Kate's shoulders, using the movement as a childish excuse to drape his arm around her protectively.

He half expected her to pull away from him, but, to his relief and surprise, she leant into him instead, resting her head on his shoulder.

"It's so beautiful out here," Kate murmured softly.

"Dangerous though," Becker whispered. He was having to make a conscious effort not to lean down to those wild curls.

"I was looking for the plough," said Kate. "You know: the constellation. Wherever I was in the northern hemisphere, or most of it anyway, I could always find the plough and that would tell me that I was still here. Still at home. Wherever home was, it was always under that same sky."

"Did you find it?"

"I think so," Kate raised an arm out of the blanket and pointed at a patch of unfamiliar sky. "Over there. Do you see them?"

Becker squinted in the direction she indicated, ignoring the fact that this brought his head much closer to hers.

"What am I looking for," he breathed.

"You see that bright star there," Kate pointed and Becker nodded, still not sure where he was supposed to be looking. Kate carried on. "There's a jagged line that runs right from there, almost like a lightning strike."

"I see it," Becker nodded. "It doesn't look much like I remember it."

"It won't do. Not yet, anyway. Not for another couple of hundred million years."

"It's still the same stars, though," said Becker, sensing the sadness in Kate's voice. "The same moon, the same sky and, in the morning, the same sun."

"Just not the same world," Kate shrugged turning to face him and catching his face close to hers. Her sudden intake of breath brought Becker's attention back from the stars to Kate's face, now so close to his it took everything he had to stop himself closing the gap between them.

Once again, she surprised him by not pulling away. Instead, they remained frozen, their only movements coming from their eyes as they flitted across each others faces, looking for the slightest sign. As if drawn by an inexorable force, like two stars colliding under the weight of each other's gravity, their lips met. The first kiss was soft, tentative, still unsure of its welcome. The second was longer, slower, savouring every moment. The third kiss was deeper. All the passion, the fury, the grief, the frustration, the relief and all the other mixed up emotions of the past day went into that kiss. When they finally broke apart, they were breathing heavily. Kate rested her forehead against Becker's.

"You still owe me that dinner you know," she said.


	11. Chapter 11

******A/N: Sorry for the delay folks. Thanks for the reviews though. And hold on to your heads, it's about to get confusing. This is the bit I've been dreading. Welcome to paradox city!  
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**Chapter 11**

"I don't understand," Connor said, his attention fully on Helen now. "What can I possibly do that you can't? Why do you need me?"

"I never was much good with technology," Helen drawled. "You, on the other hand, are the exact opposite. Quite the little genius."

"Helen, you're millions of years in the future and you're coming to me for technology advice? Forgive me for sounding cynical, but somehow that just doesn't make sense."

"This may be the future, Connor, and they may have a lot of technology that we don't, but that doesn't mean that they are capable of building the machine I need you to build," Helen paused, watching Connor closely before continuing. "Well, rebuild, actually."

Connor frowned. Something in Helen's tone told him there was a lot going on here that he didn't know about and it was making him nervous.

"What," he asked, choosing his words with care, "makes you think I'll be able to rebuild it?"

"Well you managed it first time around."

Connor sat down heavily. So Helen knew something of his own personal history. His future, as it was to him at present. How much did she know? And what did this have to do with Abby and the deadly virus that was killing off mankind?

"I need to know everything," he said after a moment.

"Ask your questions and I'll answer them," replied Helen, waving a hand to dismiss the guards.

"What happened here?" Connor asked once the door had closed behind the last guard, leaving him alone with Helen.

"A new, partially man-made, ice age took over the world and mankind decided to stop the spread of the ice with nuclear technology. The plan went wrong. Now it is held back at a particular line by an array of nuclear stations churning out enough heat to melt the ice and enough by-product radiation to fry a human in less than a day. All life within the radiation belt has been wiped out with the exception of these underground monitoring stations. Humanity is gone."

"Wait a minute," Connor interrupted. "You just said we survived. We didn't die out. Now you're telling me we did? And what about the guys that picked us up and brought us here? Or did you pick them out of time as well?"

"Cai and his men belong to this time, Connor," Helen replied, watching her words sink in. "Humanity is gone, as I said, but I didn't lie to you. You see we didn't die out, dear boy. We evolved."

XXXX

Kate groaned as she woke up to bright sunlight. For a moment she thought she was back in her brand new, featureless, character free, London flat, with sun streaming in a window, but her mattress was too hard and her pillow was a funny shape. She opened her eyes and took in her surroundings, then groaned again as it all came flooding back to her. A movement below her head made her pay more attention to her pillow. He was starting to wake up.

Carefully, she disentangled herself from the blanket covering Becker and herself and sat up. They hadn't meant to fall asleep outside the cave, it had just happened that way. She wasn't entirely sure she had a clear memory of how it had just happened, but it had. Kate cast her mind back over the events just a few hours previously. A smile crossed her face as she recollected the kiss, chewing her lip absent-mindedly, her eyebrows raised.

Kate's unfocussed gaze suddenly picked up something and she blinked a few times before she was able to focus clearly on the distraction. A light was shining down by the forest's edge. A bright, pulsing, golden light. Kate scrambled to her feet, grabbing the blanket and shaking Becker awake in a blur of movement. Seconds later he had a pair of binoculars from one of the guards' packs and was focussing them on the distant glow.

"You're right, it's an anomaly," he said. "Quick, get the others. No time for food or washing, we've got to go now, before the larger creatures have woken up."

"You mean before it closes. We haven't seen any larger creatures here."

"Either way..."

"I know."

Dashing around the cave waking up soldiers and packing up bags took little more than two minutes. Little John proved the hardest to wake, so Becker picked him up and carried him. Within five minutes they were out of the cave and on the march towards the anomaly.

"What if this anomaly thing closes by the time we get there?" Elizabeth asked, keeping pace with Kate and Becker at the head of the group.

"Then we turn and go back," Becker said simply.

"We don't even know where it goes," Kate whispered. "What if it goes back to our own time, or to somewhere worse than this?"

"Then we turn and go back," Becker repeated. "We don't necessarily have the time to stand and debate the matter, or to send an envoy first to check it out, so we all go. We see what's on the other side. If it seems safer or easier to live in than here, we stay, if not, we come back and keep waiting."

"You seem to have thought this through," said Elizabeth.

"I've been trained for it," Becker answered, keeping his eyes on the anomaly. "Making quick decisions in difficult situations. I was trained by the best."

"Do we get to know who or is that classified?"

Becker cast a glance sideways at Elizabeth.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Young man, I have been writing characters, observing human behaviour and researching histories for more years than I care to remember. I can spot someone who has something to hide at ten paces, and I can spot young lovers much sooner! In my extensive experience, the two don't mix particularly well so whatever story you're hiding, I suggest you take the time to tell it!"

XXXX

Nick Cutter shielded his eyes from the bright glare of the anomaly. At his side, he could hear Rex growling. The figure that came through the anomaly was tall, as tall as he was. It was clad in a white biohazard suit with a helmet covering its head. Cutter dropped his hand and frowned at the newcomer.

"Who are you?" Cutter asked.

"Quick, bring her through," the figure replied, ignoring his question.

"But..."

"She hasn't much time. If you want her to live, bring her through!"

That was enough for Cutter. He scooped Abby up into his arms and followed the white clad figure through the anomaly. Determined not to be parted from his beloved mistress, Rex swooped through behind them.

The other side of the anomaly was a hospital ward. Other than that, Cutter couldn't say, but he was sure it was some kind of ward. The walls, ceiling and floor glowed with white light. Complicated and unfamiliar instruments littered the workbench on the other side of a glass pane at the far end of the room. There was one couch, two chairs and two beds, along with various monitoring equipment. Cutter walked forward towards the nearest bed, but felt a hand on his shoulder. The white clad figure was holding him back. What for? Cutter saw a white gloved hand extend in front of him and touch a clear glass wall that blocked his way. Suddenly he understood: the ward was a separate room.

A buzzing sounded above Cutter's head and he heard Rex chirp nervously.

"Stay still," the figure ordered.

Cutter did as he was told and felt a ray of heat, focussed and sharp, pass down his body from head to foot then back up again. This was followed by a feeling of light-headedness, then a return to normal air pressure. Suddenly the glass wall in front of him slid back.

"Primary Decontamination Complete," announced an electronic voice.

The figure stepped forward first and led Cutter into the ward, signalling the bed with the most equipment surrounding it. Cutter placed Abby there and jumped as a door than had blended seamlessly with the wall on his left slid open to admit three more figures, each clad in similar clothes, which he took for hospital uniforms.

Two of the newcomers went straight to Abby and began hooking her up to the monitors and injecting her with clear liquids. The third came to Cutter.

"You have no need to fear us. We are here to save Miss Maitland's life," she said, her accent unfamiliar. "You too need our attention, but only while we monitor the progression of the virus through your bloodstream. Once your body is clear of infection you are free to leave. Please, make yourself comfortable in the other bed. You will find the necessary essentials in the cupboard beside the bed. A curtain will prevent itself at your request."

Before Cutter could say a word, the nurse, or doctor, hurried past him to help with Abby's care. Cutter looked from her to his bed and back again, confused.

"Come with me," said the white clad figure who had rescued them. "I'll help you settle in."

Cutter followed the figure over to the other bed. He could see no cupboard and no curtain, just a single monitor and the bed itself.

"Curtain," the figure stated.

To Cutter's surprise, a partition of the wall and ceiling slid away and a solid, opaque screen zipped around them, enclosing the bed and area nearby in its own small room. Cutter noted that the sound of the doctors and nurses around Abby had also vanished. The screen was soundproof too.

After that, it was less of a surprise when the stranger pressed an almost invisible panel by the side of the bed and it slid back to allow a cupboard to emerge.

"It's all very straightforward," said the figure. "You'll get used to it."

"Who are you?" Cutter repeated.

The figure removed its helmet and Cutter gasped.

"My name is doctor Nick Cutter," said the white clad man. "I am another you. Not you from earlier on in your lifetime: you would remember that. I'm you from a whole other lifetime altogether."


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Thanks for all the great reviews for this. I really hope it doesn't get too confusing in the next few chapters (yes, this one will have more chapters than the other ones, but the chapters may be a bit shorter). Help yourselves to cookies. This chapter is also quite short for me, but it seems to fit in the space, so... I hope you like it. thanks again.**

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**Chapter 12**

Connor stared at the screen in front of him. This was ridiculous, he thought, like something out of Dune. The display showed him snippets of information, like newspaper cuttings without the newspaper. Every one of those snippets told him something else about the world he was not living in and its turbulent history. He wasn't sure what had shocked him more: Helen's explanation or the factual documentation of his own place in the history books of this world.

The machine he was supposed to recreate seemed impossible, but then so had the anomalies. According to Helen, it was a machine that he himself had invented. It would allow them to pinpoint a time in space and a space in time. It would allow them control over all four dimensions. Although, he was becoming less and less sure that there were so few dimensions to control as just four.

He scanned the clippings, as he had decided to think of them. Helen had performed a simple search for any historical items that included his name. Some of the information that had been found by the search was proving difficult to ignore. It was disconcerting to look up and see ones own obituary staring out of the computer screen.

Eventually, he found what he was looking for: a report detailing the unveiling of Professor Connor Temple's latest invention in the fight to protect the world from the increasing occurrence of anomalies. Apparently his previous inventions had included monitoring, exploring, opening and closing exiting anomalies that occurred naturally, as well as a way of half-closing, or locking, an anomaly. This 'new' invention claimed to be able to create anomalies. Fully man-made ones. Wherever and whenever one wished. Connor shuddered at the implications of such powerful technology, still reluctant to believe that he himself had invented it, even less that he had allowed it to be publicised like this.

There were enough details in the historical information for Connor to work out the basics of the contraption. After that it would have to be trial and error. He added a few more notes to the pad of paper in front of him and got up to leave. Helen, who had been watching him from the other side of the room, raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Only four and a half hours to solve a riddle that's been puzzling the future's brightest for millennia? You must be good," she drawled.

"Not solve, not entirely," Connor corrected her. "I won't know I've got it right until we test it, and there's a lot to do yet."

"What do you need?" Helen asked, pushing herself up off the wall.

"I'll need my team for a start," Connor replied. "There's no way I can do this alone."

XXXX

Becker and Kate cast a glance at each other. There it was: the anomaly. But was it a blessing or a curse?

"I'll go first," Becker said, taking charge as the rest of their group came to a halt beside them.

"How will you know what era it is? I should go," Kate argued, placing her hands on her hips and glaring at him stubbornly.

"Fine, we'll both go," Becker shrugged.

Without waiting for Kate to reply, he turned and strode through the anomaly, only looking round once the blinding glare had cleared. Part of him rejoiced to see that she had indeed walked through by his side, the rest of him kicked himself for letting her walk into possible danger like this. He looked around, taking in the canopy of trees above him and the carpet of leaves below his feet.

"Well, where are we? You're the expert," he muttered, keeping an eye on the trees for hidden danger.

"All things considered," Kate began. "I'd say we were probably somewhere in the middle ages."

"Really? How can you be so sure?"

"There's a Knight Templar sitting under that tree over there."

XXXX

Cutter fidgeted with his earphones. Even in the future, or some weird alternate reality, he thought, hospital radio is still rubbish. Giving up on the earphones he began prodding at the panels by the bed. He had never had much patience with patients.

The curtain shielding his bed slid open slightly and Cutter jumped like a guilty schoolboy caught smoking behind the bike sheds. The sound of voices from Abby's side of the room drifted across and he looked to the anonymous nurse, or perhaps she was a doctor, he couldn't tell, strapping the monitor onto him.

"How's Abby?" Cutter asked, keeping his voice low and unthreatening.

"She is stable at present, but her condition is still critical," the nurse or doctor replied. "We need to take some of your blood, though. You have immunity to the virus, but your white blood cells will still be producing antibodies to fight it. It's the simple fact that they are able to produce those antibodies that gives you immunity. Abby's blood cells cannot produce them. That is why she is dying. We need to isolate the antibodies in your blood and inject them into Abby's. This should save her life. Do I have your consent to take your blood?"

Cutter nodded mutely. Of course: he should have thought of that. Once again, nature held the key to life and death. He looked up as the nurse-doctor finished drawing blood and sealed the needle wound in his arm with a spray that turned his arm slightly brown.

"What's that?" Cutter asked.

"Antiseptic, fibrin, platelets, iodine and nanodes," the nurse-doctor replied without blinking.

"Nanodes?" Cutter queried, feeling utterly lost and helpless.

"Harmless, minuscule electronic devices that stimulate the healing process by applying multiple small electric shocks to the affected area. You may feel a tingling sensation. It is nothing to worry about. Perfectly normal."

"Oh good," said Cutter, finding the medic's cold, scientific nature less than reassuring. He decided to try a different tack. "Tell me," he began, "where and when exactly are we?"

The medic turned to look at him directly for once before answering.

"You are in the Anomaly Research Centre medical facility," she said. "Today is Thursday, the 18th September, 3046."


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Thank you everyone who has reviewed. Especially smallfri, Kate, Xanthiae and Pandora. Have some cookies guys. I'm really sorry about the delay. Hopefully this chapter will make up for it somewhat... I hope...**

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**Chapter 13**

Becker watched the knight closely. For a fellow soldier, he didn't seem particularly aware of his surroundings. So far, he had slept through Kate's return through the anomaly to bring the rest of their group into the decidedly safer medieval era, a hurried discussion on how they should proceed and whether or not they should wake the knight, another discussion on what they would say to him if they did wake him up, the removal and hiding of every gun and piece of obviously futuristic kit possible and now two of Becker's attempts to wake him. Becker was beginning to think the man was dead. He reached a hand forward and checked for a pulse. It was there, but it was weaker than he would have liked in one of his own men.

Turning and nodding to Kate and Elizabeth to join him, John wandering over with them, Becker began to check the knight for injuries. It was a task he had completed many times in training and in the field on his own men, but never on a knight Templar in full chain mail armour.

"What's wrong?" Kate whispered in Becker's ear. Becker froze and turned to glare at her.

"The guy is unconscious, Kate, and we're trying to wake him up," he remarked dryly. "Why bother whispering?"

Kate shrugged in response and stared back at him, waiting on an answer to her question.

"He's really unconscious, that wasn't an exaggeration," Becker explained with a sigh. "I think he might be injured somewhere, but I can't find where."

"In that get up, it's as likely to be internal bleeding as anything else!" Elizabeth stated from Becker's other side. "Under that tunic he's got a chain mail vest and hood, then a thick, padded leather jerkin, called a haubergeon, to stop the chain mail chafing. They stop most blows breaking the skin, but that's not always a good thing."

Becker sighed and continued his check of the knight.

"Did you check under the chain mail hood?" Kate asked, frowning at the unconscious man before her.

Becker glanced sideways at her, then looked back to his patient. Frowning, he spotted what had made Kate speak up. He hadn't spotted it before. A tiny trickle of blood wound its way down the edge of the chain mail hood. Carefully prising the hood away from the knight's head, Becker brought away a hand red with fresh blood.

"Great! Head injury! Now what do we do?" Becker groaned.

"Well, you're in charge," Kate shrugged.

"Nice," Becker snarled, glaring at her again. "Thank you so much for that one."

"Well, I don't have any official first aid training," said Elizabeth. "I know a little bit of this and that from research for my books."

"I've got some training, but it's mostly diving related injuries," Kate admitted.

"Oh, and divers never hit their heads then?" Becker deadpanned.

"Not quite as often as soldiers do, no," Kate replied, smiling sweetly in return to Becker's renewed glare.

"Fine," Becker hissed. "Get me one of the first aid packs, a blanket and something to brace his neck with."

He heard rather than saw Kate disappear from his side, followed by Elizabeth. In their absence, John edged closer to watch Becker ease the hood further back off the knight's head, feeling gingerly for the source of the blood.

"Can I help, Uncle Pete?" John asked, receiving a sharp look from Becker. "Sorry, I mean Uncle James. I'm sorry," the child sighed, wincing. "I just keep forgetting, that's all."

"It's okay, John. It probably doesn't matter now anyway," Becker sighed. "It's probably a better name to have in these times anyway."

"Why?" John sat down beside the unconscious knight with his back to the tree and looked up at Becker.

"Well, if we are in the middle ages, around the time of the crusades, then we're probably somewhere between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. The Templars were disbanded in thirteen hundred and seven. Friday the thirteenth, actually: that's where the superstition comes from."

"What does that have to do with your name?"

"Well, think back, John," Becker looked down at the boy. "Remember when I told you about some of the big battles in British history? What one happened in thirteen fourteen?"

"Bannockburn," John grinned.

"Exactly. And who fought that?"

"The Scots and the English."

"Right. So we weren't all one country then. Worse: Scotland and England were deadly enemies. And guess what: James is a Scottish name. Not one held by any of the Scottish monarchs. Not yet, anyway. Still, it's probably best if you stick to Peter, or just call me Becker, like everyone else."

Finally, Kate returned with the first aid kit and blanket, Elizabeth following her shortly afterwards with something that resembled a neck brace. With help from John and Kate, Becker managed to lift the heavy chain mail hood from the knight's shoulders, peeling it gently away from the congealed blood matted in with the knight's hair. He took the brace and carefully slid it around the knight's neck. It fitted well enough. Making sure his patient's neck was secure, he pulled the unconscious body forward and motioned for Kate to slip the blanket behind the knight's back, providing a cushion of the knight and some space to work for Becker.

"We have to keep him upright," Becker told them. "At least keep the wound above the heart. That should help slow the bleeding."

Kate nodded and took up a position at the knight's side, making sure he didn't suddenly slump in one direction or the other.

Taking a bottle of water from the pack Elizabeth had now opened, Becker washed the knight's head, watching closely for any signs of renewed bleeding. With the worst of the blood away, he could see that the wound was high up at the back of the knight's skull. He pressed down on the wound, feeling for any signs of broken bones. There were none. He was sure of it. So far, all he could find was a knock on the head that had cut into the scalp and bled a lot.

"It's just a bad bump, nothing more serious," he said. "I'll clean it and dress it all the same though."

Taking the bottle of antiseptic and the gauze Elizabeth held out to him, Becker began to clean the cut, dabbing at the area around the wound before turning his attention to the cut itself. As soon as he pressed the antiseptic into the wound, he head a hiss of air being sucked in below him. He looked down. A look of pain distorted the knight's features and Becker watched as the man groggily opened his eyes.

"Pax vobiscum," Becker said quickly, blurting out the rehearsed Latin speech that Elizabeth had taught them back when they had finally decided on how to communicate with the knight. "Sumus amicum **peregrini."**

**He hoped he had just said something along the lines of 'peace be with you, we are friendly travellers********'. ****He watched the knight's eyes roll around the scene before him, focussing briefly on the anomaly in the background before slipping off to John at the side.**

"Lullay, lullay, litel child, to care art thou bimet," the knight mumbled in John's direction. "Thou noost nat this worldes wilde bifore thee is yset."

"What?" Kate asked Elizabeth as the knight slipped into unconsciousness once again.

XXXX

Connor looked down at the contraption before him. It certainly looked like the pictures he had seen in the reports. He wasn't sure if he knew what every single component in the machine did exactly, but he had been assured that they did what he wanted them to do. His team had gathered behind him, Peta hovering close to his shoulder. Helen stood a few feet away, Cai and the other future humans of this time gathered around her.

Connor still wasn't sure just how different Cai and his people were from what Connor himself thought of as human. They were certainly taller. Their heads were larger over all and especially at the back. According to Cai, his people had a life expectancy that ranged well into three figures. They were paler, but Cai had assured Connor that further south he would find people with darker skin: all those who were able to live outdoors mainly. Their ears were larger and more pointed, giving Cai, to Connor's eyes, a Vulcan look. Their eyes were larger too and their reactions much faster. Connor hadn't suggested arm-wrestling Cai or any of his people, but from the boxes they carried around with ease, it certainly looked like they were a lot stronger than he was. A myriad of small changes randomly picked up through time to help them survive in this new world, now changing them into an entirely new species.

Turning his attention back to the small computer screen in his hands, Connor keyed in a few details, cast a final glance at Helen, then pressed the enter key. An anomaly sprung into life in front of him, illuminating the chalky cavern in an eerie glow.

"So far so good," Helen called out. "Not bad for a month's work."

"Entirely useless if it doesn't go where I want it to though," Connor shot back, not taking his eyes off the shimmering gateway.

"Then let's go find out," said Helen. "You set the co-ordinates we agreed on?"

Connor nodded and lifted a backpack, slinging it round one shoulder and stepping forward to join Helen in front of the anomaly.

"Such a clever boy," Helen mused, looking round at him. "Such a shame you didn't meet me first."

"I'm not interested in your games, Helen," said Connor, turning to face Helen. "I'm here to save Abby. That's it."

Helen smiled sweetly, tipping her head to one side as she scrutinised Connor's face.

"Well, let's see where this one goes first," she said. "One step at a time."


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, especially Pandora and Xanthiae. :) Help yourselves to cookies. On another note, if anyone reading this has also read and can remember as far back as Mirror, Mirror, now is the time to start looking out for one of the loose ends there being tied up. Well, explained, anyway!**

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**Chapter 14**

Jenny Lewis sat with her head propped up against the dusty chalk wall. On the far side of their jail cell, Claudia Brown was curled up in a ball, asleep. It had been quite some time now since they had last been visited by Nick Cutter. Jenny wasn't sure how long: there was never any way of measuring time in this place. All she did know was that the first time she and Claudia had set eyes upon this particular version of Cutter they had both been shocked into silence. He had spoken to them both politely, seeming completely oblivious to their knowledge of him, and had promised to visit them again, which he had, frequently. The effect of this upon both women was confusing to say the least.

"He doesn't know us," Claudia had stated blankly after that first visit. "Either of us."

"He's younger than the Nick in my timeline," Jenny had mused in reply.

"And mine."

"Then she's gone back and picked him out of the timeline from before he met either of us."

"Maybe."

"What does that mean?" Jenny had turned to look at Claudia. After so long in the cell, she had learned to recognise the signs of an idea in Claudia's speech.

"Well, think about it: if she'd taken him out of either of our timelines, we'd know about it, surely," Claudia shrugged. "We would never have met him."

"So what? A third timeline?" Jenny frowned in disbelief. "I hope Helen's keeping track of all this!"

"She will be, you can be sure of it," Claudia pulled a face. "But if multiple realities exist, then why should there only be two: one for you and one for me. Maybe there are millions. Billions even. One for every single life choice of every person on the planet."

"How could anyone keep track of themselves travelling through that many realities, never mind anyone else!"

"I don't know," Claudia shrugged again. "Helen has always been one step ahead, though, so maybe she knows."

Silence had fallen in the cell then as both women contemplated the repercussions of this idea.

"Do you realise," Jenny murmured, "That this means there could be just as many copies of Nick out there? Or you? Or me? Or Helen?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Claudia sighed. "At least in Helen's case. With all the risks she's taken there must be some timelines where those risks haven't paid off. Timelines where she's been injured or eaten, or where somebody was bright enough to take the shot while they had it and not let her escape every time!"

"Perhaps there's a timeline where she and Nick are still together," Jenny added. "Maybe even a timeline were Nick went with her to find the anomalies and they're both slowly going mad. Or a timeline where she never found the anomalies at all."

"Somehow," Claudia sighed wearily, casting her mind back to the various riddles and infuriating quirks of their conversations with this new version of Nick. "I get the feeling that no matter what universe you go to, Helen will always be exactly the same! Some people never change!"

Jenny looked over at Claudia now, asleep on the floor of the cell. Perhaps some people didn't change much, but they had. On the one hand, here was she, Jenny Lewis: high-powered executive and PR genius, used to getting her own way in everything. On the other hand, there was Claudia: low-level junior home office employee, haphazard, disorganised, by Jenny's standards anyway, and used to doing as she was told. And yet both of them had fallen in love with the same man. And from the sound of things, he had fallen in love with both of them. And here he was again, without the baggage of previous loyalty to either of them.

Jenny Lewis sighed and tried tell her brain to fall asleep. If she wasn't careful things could get very complicated indeed.

XXXX

Professor Nick Cutter sat up in his hospital bed, staring at Doctor Nick Cutter standing at the far end of it. So far Abby was stable and nobody here had caught the virus. That had freed up him mind to do some deeper thinking about the doppelganger staring back at him.

"Where are you from?" Cutter asked himself.

"Long story," Nick replied.

"Try me," said Cutter with a smile. "I think you'll find me capable of understanding you."

"I don't doubt it," said Nick. "Believe me it's just as weird for me to be standing here looking at you as it is for you to be sitting there looking at me!"

"And yet you don't seem particularly bothered by it. Why not? How much more do you know about what's going on?"

"Like I said: a long story."

"Pull up a chair," said Cutter stubbornly. "I'm in no rush."

Sighing, Nick moved round the bed and sat down in the chair indicated.

"Look, you know about the multiple universe theory," he said, spreading his hands in front of him. "So you know that I'm you from a different timeline. What else do you want to know?"

"Who were you in your timeline?"

"Doctor Nick Cutter. Lecturer. Central Metropolitan University. Married to Doctor Helen Cutter, missing, recently declared deceased..."

"How recently?" Cutter cut in.

"Six months before I got swept up in all this," Nick replied.

"And?"

"And what?"

"Have you found her yet?"

"Not in my timeline."

What does that mean?" Cutter snapped. "Is Helen behind this? Did she send you?"

"Professor Cutter," Nick replied, putting the emphasis on the 'professor'. "I was sent here on the orders of and with the help of just one person."

"Helen?"

"No, a man I'd never met before. He assured me you would know him, though."

"Who then?"

Doctor Nick Cutter looked up and smiled.

"He said his name was Connor Temple."

XXXX

Connor looked around the landscape. It was ridiculously, horribly familiar. He had been here so many times now he knew the place better than he knew his own room back in Darwin House. The shingle crunched beneath his feet, echoing footsteps taken so long ago. This time it wasn't Abby by his side but Helen. He made his way over to the pile of rocks that hid the other part of the beach and clambered up them, dislodging a few in his haste. A disgruntled nothosaurus looked up as Connor's head appeared over the top of the rock pile. It snorted at him indignantly and slithered off into the water. The rest of the animals seemed less bothered by his entrance and continued to bask in the warm Triassic sunlight.

"Well, we're in the right place," said Helen, joining him on the ridge. "But are we in the right time? The Triassic is a big time period."

"I used the samples still in the rover to calibrate the mechanism," Connor replied. "Your equipment got a much clearer date for them than ours, but it's still within a margin of five years either side. It should be easier to be more accurate when we actually know the exact time and date we're aiming for though."

"Fascinating," Helen smiled. A sound caught her attention and she looked back over her shoulder. Where their anomaly had been, and closed, another had opened. Helen grabbed Connor's arm. "Quickly," she said. "Over the ridge and out of sight."

Following her lead Connor dived over the ridge, rolling and sliding down the other side. Helen helped him to his feet and dragged him off up the beach to the greener ridge of the bank. When they reached a suitable hollow in the ground, giving them an almost clear view of the anomaly and part of the beach, Helen pulled him down and held a finger to her lips.

"Let's see what happens next," she whispered.

By Connor's reckoning they must have lain crouched in the hollow for nearly two hours before there was any sign of activity by the anomaly. He sighed and rolled over onto his back, staring up at the Triassic sky and wondering just how Helen Cutter was able to stay quite so still for quite so long. He stretched and yawned. If he didn't know that time had just lost all meaning as a solid measurement, he would have said they were running out of it. Right now he was more interested in making sure nothing crept up behind them and ate them than in watching the anomaly. If he was dead, that would certainly put a limit on the time he had left to save Abby.

He rubbed a hand across his eyes and gasped as Helen jabbed him in the side with her elbow. Turning round again, he looked over to the anomaly and saw the source of her interest. Something was coming through. Taking care to keep low and quiet, Connor peered over the edge of the hollow at the shapes emerging through the shimmering light. When he was finally able to identify them, his eyes widened.

"Oh. My. God," he hissed.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Thanks again to those of you who reviewed. I love to hear your thoughts on and reactions to the story as it progresses, so please do tell me. Cookies to Kate, Pandora and Smallfri for reviewing chapter 14.**

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**Chapter 15**

"Captain!"

Becker turned at the sound of one of him soldiers calling him. He saw the reason for the call immediately: the anomaly was pulsing, getting ready to close. He held a hand up to the man who had called.

"It's all right, Jenkins," he said. "We're staying on this side."

The soldier nodded and relaxed, motioning to the others with him to step back and let the anomaly close. The other five soldiers did as they were told, falling into murmuring conversation as they waited for their next order.

Becker nodded to himself. His team were sensible and adaptable. They were coming to terms with their situation far more readily than he had expected or hoped. He turned back to the knight and checked the man's pulse again. Still weak, but there. He glanced up at Kate, still propping up the knight on one side. Her eyes flicked up and met his for a second, then flicked away again.

Suddenly a screech ripped through the air. Becker spun round and stood up in one fluid motion. His eyes focussed on the anomaly just in time to see a muddy brown and green tail disappear through. He glanced over to his men. Four, no five. One was on the ground unconscious. One missing. Who? Jenkins. He raced over to his team, reaching them just as the anomaly snapped shut.

"What just happened?" Becker demanded.

"Creature, sir," one of the men replied. Barclay, his name was, Becker recalled. "Came at us from the woods, sir. Heading straight for the anomaly. Faulkner and Jenkins got in the way. It knocked Faulkner out, picked Jenkins up and threw him through the anomaly. Disappeared through right after him."

"It must have sensed the anomaly was closing," Becker muttered. "What kind of creature was it? Did you get a good look?"

"Looked like a t-rex, sir, but smaller," Barclay replied. "About the size of our van."

"A young therapod," Elizabeth's voice cut in behind Becker. "Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, something like that. They would be right for that time period."

"Carnivores?" Becker asked, looking round to the older woman.

"Of course," she replied.

"Right," said Becker, turning back to his remaining men. "Barclay, make a note in our log book. Movement through anomaly to medieval era, date still unconfirmed. Disappearance and assumed death of Sergeant Jenkins. Injury of Lance Corporal Faulkner. Aggressor juvenile therapod dating from Kimmeridgian stage of Jurassic era. Suspected Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus or similar. Other possible casualties, one man in full Knights Templar armour, unconscious and treated for head injury. Once you've done that, go and stand guard over the others. Jones, Simpson, get some poles from this wood and make me two stretchers: one for Faulkner and one for our friend over there. Tremayne, go with them and keep and eye out for any other creatures. Anything that looks dangerous and in the wrong time, shoot to kill."

Becker ran a hand through his usually unruffled hair and turned back to the civilian section of his group.

"Ms. Docherty, I need you to take over from Kate. Keep the knight upright and keep John with you," he said, walking past Elizabeth as he spoke and stopping in front of Kate, his pistol already in his hand. "Kate, I know you don't like using them, but you're the only other person here with firearm training. I need you to take this gun and stand guard for me. Barclay will help you. He'll be finished with the log book in a minute, then he'll join you. One of you look one way one the other, make sure the whole area around you is covered, okay?"

"Where are you going?" Kate asked, standing up as Elizabeth took her place by the knight's side.

"Somebody needs to go with Tremayne and the others," he replied, pressing the gun into her hand. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Just keep an eye on everything here for me. You won't be moving around but you've got a wider area to watch because we can't move Faulkner until we know his neck isn't damaged."

Kate nodded dumbly and took the gun she was being given.

"Good girl, I'll be back soon," Becker pressed a kiss onto Kate's forehead and ran off after Jones, Simpson and Tremayne.

XXXX

She was leaning over to whisper in his ear now. He could remember her words clearly, asking where they were. He watched himself turn to her and whisper back an answer, so quietly that there was no way he could hear himself at this distance, but the words were so etched in his memory that his brain filled in the blanks.

"Somewhere in the Triassic, definitely, unless that nothosaurus has managed to find its way through two anomalies. If it's the Triassic, then we're probably on Pangaea, it was all one continent then, and you are now looking out at the Panthalassic ocean: the largest ocean ever."

He watched her turn and look out at the ocean. Blonde hair almost glowing in the sun as she turned. He could save her right now. He could get up out of this hollow, walk over there and steal her away with him, or tell her not to go through that anomaly, or tell her not to stay with Cutter and Lester in London, to go with him to Darwin House when he left. He could take his past self aside and explain to him all the things he wished he'd said and done before they'd separated. Tell himself the mistakes not to make.

Before he had even raised himself a centimetre out of the hollow, Helen had pulled him back down again.

"Don't be a fool," she hissed. "Do you have any idea of the damage you could do?"

"I could save Abby's life right here, right now!" Connor hissed back, anger and desperation showing through.

"You would create a paradox. One that you can't trick your way out of. You save Abby now and you have no need to build the technology that brought us here to save her in the first place. The result of that would not only kill both of you, but also your entire team, not to mention wipe out our last chance of saving humanity from the plague that brought us here."

Connor buried his head in his hands. Helen Cutter might be many things, but she wasn't stupid. Changing history was unpredictable at the best of times but the consequences of changing this part of history right now would be dire. He looked up, aware that all he could do now was watch as his life replayed itself before his eyes.

They were over on the rock pile now, looking down at the nothosaurus beach, the creatures there already made jumpy by his and Helen's appearance earlier, they were now sliding off into the water. Soon the beach was empty and Connor watched himself and Abby leave the rocks and head over to the military detail assigned to them. That was the conversation about poetry, he thought as he watched he past self throw his hands up as Abby danced away from him to join the soldiers.

He watched as she reached the top of the bank. If she looked the wrong way now she would see him and Helen. Seeing him on his own might be enough to confuse her, but seeing him with the woman they had always considered their nemesis would surely be an even greater shock. She didn't look their way though, instead keeping her eyes fixed on his past self climbing up the bank to join her. Connor smiled at the memory of what came next, watching Abby wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him.

"What was that for?"

She had laughed at the look of confusion on his face then. It did look quite comical, he decided, watching himself from the safe distance of the hollow.

"I just had a thought," she had said. "You do realise that this is the earliest time period we've been in?"

"Other than our own time, and the future one, it's the only one we've been in," he had replied.

"But still, there are no other humans here, are there?"

"Well, there's the soldiers..."

"Yes, Conn, there's the soldiers, that's hardly what I meant!"

"Well, what did you mean then?"

"When I kissed you a moment ago, do you know what that was?"

Unable to think of a sensible reply, he had pulled a face.

"It was the first kiss in the whole of history," she had grinned, giggling.

"Oh! I see. I..."

He was cut off as she kissed him again, this time taking her time.

Off to one side in the hollow, Connor watched, remembering every moment of that kiss from the taste of her lips when they first met to the embarrassed cough of the soldiers in the background that had finally separated them. What an idiot he had been to leave her. What a fool he had been not to turn around and tell Lester to stuff his job. Even when she had told him to go, he should have stood firm and refused to leave her. But, as Helen had pointed out, if he hadn't left her then, they would both be dead by now, leaving mankind with little or no hope for survival.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Thank you again to everyone reading this. Cookies to everyone who has reviewed so far. WE're not at the end yet: there's a few more chapters to go. Just as a note, if there are any questions from the series (right through from Stormy Weather to Pretty Things) that still haven't been answered, please let me know. I have a list of 14 loose ends to tie up (although weirdly none from Bad Penny, so I'm guessing I'm either missing something or I'm remembering them in the wrong places) but I do want to make sure I don't miss any.**

(If anyone can actually remember all 14 (and any others) I would be considerably impressed!)

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**Chapter 16**

"If he's here, why can't I see him?" Professor Cutter bellowed at his doppelganger.

"You might still be contagious," Doctor Nick replied patiently. "This is a secure isolation unit. Nobody gets in or out without going through decontamination and the only people they let through the door are those we know are immune to the virus."

"There certainly doesn't seem to be any shortage of doctors and nurses getting in here!"

"Almost everyone in this time is naturally immune. The virus is no longer a threat here."

"Why?"

"Well it didn't take me long to work it out, so I can't imagine you're having that much difficulty! It is our field after all!"

"Evolution?"

"As always."

"They've evolved general immunity?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"How d'you think?"

Cutter was silent for a moment. If it had been any other species his brain would have accepted the answer easily. When it was his own, it took a little more getting used to.

"The virus wasn't stopped," he murmured.

"Correct."

"The only survivors were the ones with immunity."

"Again, correct."

"The entire population of the UK has re-grown from those few survivors, so they all have immunity."

"Not just the UK."

"The world?" Cutter frowned.

"The entire world," Nick nodded.

"My God!" Cutter breathed. "How many died?"

"Billions," Nick shrugged. "Ninety nine point nine nine five percent of the population of the Earth. One survivor in every twenty thousand people. Fifty in every million."

Cutter's face drained of colour. His mouth was dry. He swallowed. One in every twenty thousand. The population had been more than decimated, it had been destroyed! And yet here he was, sitting in a high-tech medical wing of the ARC, or of an ARC, it probably wasn't the same one, being attended by an array of tall, slim doctors and nurses and talking to himself. Well, to a version of himself. Humanity had not only survived, it had picked itself up, dusted itself off and started all over again. It was truly amazing.

"The virus," Cutter said suddenly. "What do you know about it here?"

"So far, not a lot," Nick replied, leaning forward in the chair and balancing his elbows on his knees, his hands waving in front of him as he talked. "We know it is highly contagious, airborne, survives for days at a time in water, in the air or on surfaces and difficult to kill. We know that those of us who are immune produce one particular antibody that attaches itself to the viral antigens. The genetic sequence required to produce the antibody was discovered using synthetic reverse transcriptases, scanning electron micrographs and several pieces of nanotechnology I just don't understand yet. We've tried altering the non-immune genetic sequence to match the immune one, but it doesn't work. It's an operon sequence. We can change the two nucleotide bases that make the difference to the structural gene in the sequence, yet another example of nanotechnology I haven't got my head around yet, but without the same sort of changes in the operator and possibly promoter genes, the gene still won't work. It's like the part of the DNA that switches it on doesn't work any more."

"Yeah, my genetics isn't that rusty," Cutter muttered, deep in thought. "And if the operator gene is knocked out for that, then there may be a whole bunch of other things not working."

"Exactly," Nick nodded. "Plus, we haven't identified the location of the operator gene yet. We know it's upstream of the structural gene that produces the antibody itself, but there are too many start codons to isolate it. Also, we don't know what effect changing any DNA in the operator gene will have on the other genes that are overlapping it!"

"Or if the activator protein will still bind to the operator."

"It should do, that should be a response to the virus..."

"Yeah, but it might not be the right response," Cutter interrupted, rubbing a hand across his forehead. "Damn, my head hurts! Too many weird words for this time of the morning!"

"Tell me about it!"

XXXX

Becker glanced back at his mismatched group of refugees. Funny, he'd never thought of them that way until he overheard Elizabeth trying to explain it in Latin to the knight, who had come round again while Becker was busy gathering supplies with his men.

So far they had managed some form of communication. Elizabeth had persuaded the knight to speak to her in Latin and had tried to explain away the bizarre appearances of herself, Kate, John, Becker and the soldiers. In return the knight had warned them of a fearsome creature in the forest. Elizabeth had explained that they had already met, and slain, the creature, but that one of their number had died and another been injured in the process. The knight had graciously offered them his hospitality and told them that his manor was not far from the forest. He had introduced himself as Sir Thomas Berenger, a Poor Fellow-Soldier of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, returning to his home after losing many of his brothers at the fall of Acre.

That put them at the end of the thirteenth century, Becker thought. Acre had fallen to the Mamluks in 1291. It had been followed by a period of retreat and reorganisation that had effectively signalled the end of both the crusades and the Templars. One Grand Master of the order had died in the siege, his replacement following him just a year later to be replaced himself by the final Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, in 1292. Becker mentally kicked himself for forgetting the names of the other two Grand Masters: it would have made ascertaining the date so much easier.

Looking ahead, through the trees, he could just make out the shape of a building coming into view. It looked like a large old-fashioned farmhouse or barn. As they drew closer, and the trees thinned, Becker could make out the high, small windows in the newest part of the building, its mortar still new and clean in comparison to the rest of the building.

The manor had been built over many years, wings and rooms being added on as and when the Berenger family's finances would allow. The line of the roof jumped erratically from one height to the next, the new wing being slightly lower than the main body of the manor, but higher than the elongated wing on the other side, which Becker suspected held the kitchens and perhaps stables.

They had barely left the cover of the forest when a cry went up from the manor and an array of men and boys were running towards them. Hanging back by the corner of the manor, Becker could see one or two young women holding back some smaller children. Maids of some kind, he assumed. A lot of staff, though, for a simple manor house. And certainly a lot of children.

A clamour of noise hit them as the locals arrived to greet their lord and master. It was only with much unintelligible conversation with Sir Thomas that they finally took the makeshift litter he was being carried on, as well as the one carrying Faulkner, and led the way to the manor. Sir Thomas explained, via Elizabeth, that none of his servants spoke Latin. The only members of his household who would be able to communicate with them would be his wife, his chaplain, his physician and, hopefully, if they had been paying attention to their lessons, his children and their tutor. He also explained that the manor was only a part of his lands and he apologised that he did not have a grand castle to welcome them into, as some of his brother knights did. The manor, it appeared, was the focal point of the Berenger estate, with several smaller buildings on the far side of it surrounding the rough shape of a courtyard where it seemed much of the estate business was carried out.

Becker allowed Elizabeth to take the lead in their group, walking between him and Sir Thomas until they reached the house then greeting the lady of the manor and relaying the situation to her, interspersed with old English from Sir Thomas, until Lady Berenger shooed her husband away with a few curt orders to the men carrying his litter. She turned to the men carrying Faulkner's litter and gave similar sounding orders, then sent one of the boys running out of the manor at top speed, presumably in search of the physician.

Having dealt with the invalids, Lady Berenger turned to Elizabeth and the others, looking them over with a disapproving eye. She was tall and fair, with a long, oval face and light brown eyes. She questioned Elizabeth mercilessly and Becker heard himself and the others being introduced as the two women spoke. He frowned when he heard the word "dux" aimed in his direction, trying to place it in the remnants of what shards of Latin he had actually learned in school, then had to fight to keep his face straight when he picked up the word "uxor" aimed at Kate. He knew he hadn't been able to follow Elizabeth's introductions all that closely, but hadn't she just told their hostess that Kate was his wife?

XXXX

Connor sat down heavily on the well-padded cot built into the wall of his room in the cave system. The technology worked. So far, so good. All they needed to do now was refine it a bit, produce a handheld version and work out what they were going to do with it next. His first instinct had been to send an anomaly straight into the flat and go get Abby himself, but both Helen and Peta had argued against that, quite rightly. If he went anywhere near Abby, or their version of the present, which was quickly becoming referred to as the "plagued present" to distinguish it from the time they now found themselves based in, then he would end up catching the virus and, if he brought Abby back through the anomaly, or even just came back through himself, killing all of them as well. Not a good plan. It hadn't taken long to talk him out of it.

In the end, the plan they had come up with, with some input from Nigel, Sam and Peta, but mostly from Helen, was to find a stopping point along the way. They were, even now, searching through the historical files for information that might help them pick a time. Cai had set aside a team of his men and women to help with the search. If the men were beginning to creep Connor out, he really didn't want to think about the women. There was some variation in every population but the comparison with the women from his own time made the differences stand out. Almost all of the women he had seen in the caves were tall and remarkably curvy. Not in the way that was usually a polite way of saying chubby or overweight, though. They reminded him of Seven of Nine, from Star Trek: Voyager, but, well, more so. And their eyes were weird. Massive, in fact. Probably a product of being stuck down in these caves for so long. Just like Cai and the other men, they were hyper-intelligent and zoomed through the historical files faster than any of Connor's team.

It was Peta that had sent him down here, to his room. She had spotted the signs that said he hadn't been sleeping and had sent him off to remedy the problem. He'd tried to protest, saying that just sitting in a room trying to sleep wasn't going to make him sleep, but she'd had an answer for that. Apparently, while he'd been burning his eyes trying to read the masses of text on the screen in front of him, she had been plotting behind his back. She had already procured the services of a medic, armed with a sedative. He'd been marched off by the medic and deposited on his bunk before being injected with the clear fluid that was now fogging his brain. He'd tried fighting it, but it was winning. With a groan, he lay down on the bunk and let the drug force the much needed restorative of sleep upon him.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Thanks again to everyone reading this. Cookies to Xanthiae, Pandora, Kate and Smallfri for their reviews. There will now be a total of 19 chapters for this as the the ending of 18 was just too much fun to ditch but wouldn't have tied things up nicely and you have no idea how much fun I had trying to imagine Captain Becker in the costume he's about to get landed with! I do hope you all enjoy it. Please let me know what you think. :)**

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**Chapter 17**

Captain James Becker leant back against the cold stone wall of his new quarters. Their hostess, with the help of Elizabeth, had led them to their rooms herself. She had stationed the four healthy soldiers in a dormitory out in the servants quarters. It had once been intended for troops, but now lay empty. Elizabeth had been given the larger guest room, with instructions left for one of the maids to make up a cot for John, whom it appeared was now Elizabeth's grandson. Across the hall, the only other guest room had been given to Kate and Becker, with no similar instructions.

"For the record, young man, I shall start at the beginning," Elizabeth had told Becker once their hostess had left to find them more suitable attire. "Lady Berenger now believes that I am your mother-in-law, as well as translator and advisor. She believes that Kate is my youngest daughter and you her husband. She also believes that John is the son of my elder daughter and her husband, both now sadly deceased. I would have said he was yours but that would have made madam here a very young mother, even by today's standards, and you only have to take one look at her to know she hasn't given birth! Besides, he looks nothing like either of you, save for the dark hair, and they might not have paternity tests here but I'm willing to bet any noble lady worth her salt knows breeding!"

"I still don't see why you had to say we're married!" Kate had spat indignantly.

"My dear, the two of you argue so much it would be hard to convince the natives otherwise," Elizabeth smiled sweetly. "Besides," she added, "even with a husband you will attract considerable unwanted attention from the men around here, especially with those curls flying everywhere. At least with him on your arm you should scare some of them off!"

Becker had decided not to argue that point. It hadn't really occurred to him that Kate would need help scaring off men, but now it had been mentioned he could see the logic in Elizabeth's idea. Mercifully, Kate had seemed to see this too. The only problem was that now left them in a smallish room with one smallish double bed and no sofa.

Thankfully the bed had curtains, on the other side of which Kate was currently stomping and swearing herself into a 13th century gown. She had spent the past twenty minutes since their new clothes arrives stomping and swearing herself into it. He had taken little more than ten minutes to change into the array of clothing left for him. The undergarments had been simple enough: loose breeches with long stockings that attached to them and a tight-sleeved undershirt that came down to his knees. On top of those, a blue, shin-length tunic and grey surcoat were fastened with a wide leather belt. Short, ankle high shoes had also been provided. Kate had been provided with similar garments, albeit in a longer, more feminine cut, so he was beginning to wonder what was taking the time.

"Need a hand?" Becker called as another loud curse echoed across the room.

"Don't laugh!" Kate called back.

Taking this as an affirmative reply, Becker pushed himself up off the wall and sauntered round to the other side of the bed. He certainly had to bite back a laugh at the sight of her. The emerald green surcoat was laying in a heap on the floor, as was the light red gown. Kate was standing in the long, loose underdress with her arms hunched up and her hands jammed in the tight sleeves.

"I didn't think the sleeves would be this tight!" Kate hissed, her face turning scarlet at the look of obvious amusement on Becker's face. "And I don't know what you're grinning at over there in your dress!"

"I'm only wearing what every other man in this era wore," Becker grinned. "There is no way you are going to deflect this one onto me."

Reaching under his surcoat, Becker produced a short bladed knife and began cutting the fabric along the seam of the sleeve. Soon Kate's hands were free and he was helping her lower the ruby red dress over her head, followed by the green surcoat and narrow belt

"Do you want a hand with your hair?" Becker sighed as he watched Kate smooth down the fabric and untangle the long, loose sleeves of the gown.

"What's wrong with my hair?" Kate grumbled.

"Women cover their hair in this century. It's a modesty thing. Look, the wimple they've left you is simple enough to put on."

"How come you know so much about it?" Kate raised an eyebrow in Becker's direction.

"I've been to a few re-enactments," he replied. "My family has Norman roots and they're proud of it."

"So what? You might bump into your great-great-whatever-grandfather while we're here?"

Becker grimaced and moved to take over braiding Kate's hair, batting her hands away when she protested.

"Have you never done this before?" Becker sighed, taking out the mess Kate had made of her hair and starting the braid again.

"What, and you have?" Kate snorted.

"Actually, yes," he replied. "My mother used to get me to braid her hair for her when she wasn't able to any more. She had MS."

"I'm sorry," Kate's voice dropped to a whisper.

"Don't be. It was a long time ago and you didn't know her."

"You never talk about your family."

"There's not much to talk about. My mother died when I was seventeen. My father was killed in action before I even really got to know him. In the Gulf war."

"No brothers or sisters?"

"None."

Kate went silent for a moment. Something was nagging her.

"So why did John call you Uncle Pete? He said he got his uncles mixed up, but if you don't have a brother..."

"John has known me a lot longer than you have," said Becker quietly. He took a deep breath before he continued with his explanation. If ever there was going to be a right time to tell her, this was surely it. "Up until about three years before I got the job at the ARC, my name was Peter. I was part of an operation that left me in need of a new identity. I disappeared off the radar for a while and reinvented myself. When the job at the ARC came up. Sir James Lester came looking for me. He still has contacts that were able to find me, even if he didn't get all the details until I saw him and was able to talk to him face to face."

"But you knew him before?" Kate asked.

"Yes," he replied. "Lester was one of my father's friends who came to my mother's funeral. I'd met him occasionally before, but he took more of an interest in me then, for my father's sake, he said, and helped me through the rest of school and Sandhurst." Becker took another deep breath. "He also recruited me, three weeks after I graduated from Sandhurst, and had me seconded to MI6."

"What!" Kate tried to turn her head, but found it pulled back into place by Becker. She frowned and continued in a quieter tone. "So you're what? James Bond or something?"

"Not quite," Becker replied, his voice completely devoid of emotion. "That's more like Lester actually, although he got out of it after I managed to mess things up for him."

"What happened?"

"I got careless. I messed up. Our cover was blown. I was captured. Lester got me out," Becker's hands slipped from the finished braid to Kate's shoulders. "He saved my life. At great risk to his own. I'll never forget that. That's why I took his name when I chose my new identity. His first name and the surname of the doctor that patched me up so that we could get back to Britain."

"So what's your real name then?" Kate asked, finally able to turn and face him.

"It's Berenger," he whispered. "Peter Berenger. And yes, I'm well aware that I may have just saved the life of my great-great-whatever-grandfather!"

XXXX

Connor stood before the anomaly. The enforced sleep had done him some good. His mind felt clearer than it had in a long time. While he slept, Peta and the others had found a suitable time zone to aim for. Cai's team of engineers had miniaturised the equipment needed to produce the anomaly and put it into handheld versions. They had programmed a test run into a handheld and it had worked out. Now they had called up an anomaly to the middle of the 31st century and Connor was getting ready to step through it. On one side, Peta, Nigel and the others were lined up with various bits of kit. On the other side stood the one person in the caves who gave Connor the creeps even more than the big-eyed women: Doctor Nick Cutter. A younger version of Cutter taken from a wholly different timeline, Helen had explained. He had been the person who had walked into Darwin House with that strange warning so very long ago, not the professor. Now that he saw him up close, Connor was kicking himself that he hadn't spotted the difference between them, but then it was hardly something you looked for in a person. Doctor Nick, as Connor had decided to refer to him, was coming along because Helen believed him to be immune to the virus. By her logic, if their Nick Cutter was immune, so should this one be. Connor hadn't asked how she knew their Nick Cutter was immune. He was afraid he might get an answer he didn't like.

Making sure that everyone had everything, including a number of handheld anomaly devices, Connor led the team through the shimmering aperture.

As the anomaly winked out of existence, Helen Cutter turned away and smiled. She looked down at the device in her hand. So much power in such a small thing, she thought. And none of it would have been possible without you, you clever boy.

Leaving Cai's people to play with their new toys, she made a beeline for the barracks. Two of her clones guarded the entrance. The rest waited patiently inside. She ordered the two guards inside, locked the door behind her and turned to her troops.

"Finally," she said, holding up the handheld device. "Finally we have the power to choose our path through time. We failed once, but where direct persuasion failed, guile won through. You have your orders. Go now. Collect the equipment we will need. Meet me in the main engineering lab in two hours. If anyone tries to stop you use my name. Do not use force. We don't want our clever friends here to find out who we really are just yet."

XXXX

Connor sat in the observation lab, watching Abby. He would glance across to the monitor watching Cutter's bed too sometimes, but most of his attention was on Abby. When she woke up, he wanted to be there. If he couldn't be there in person, at least he could be here. And there really was no way he could be there in person. Not until they were sure she was clear of the virus. Even with the future technology they had brought through from Cai's people, there was no way they could manipulate the genetic sequence accurately enough to create immunity in himself or any of his team. An ordinary vaccine didn't work either. That had been the first thing they'd tried. The antibodies were not ones that were produced in an ordinary immune response, they were proteins that were present in the immune person's blood all the time, just like the A and B antibodies that had made early blood transfusions so much of a lottery. It was possible to treat the virus by injecting a non-immune person with the antibodies, but once in the blood stream, whether attached to a virus or not, the antibodies denatured within two days. The only good point was that any virus caught up in them died long before the antibodies themselves denatured.

Connor spun round in the comfortable padded viewing chair. He felt like Captain Kirk in this thing. Buttons on the arm allowed him to move the chair up and down in front of the monitors, as well as back and forth along a track line should he wish to move from one screen high up at one end of the observation lab to another high up at the other end. The chair was programmed to conform automatically to his body, ensuring perfect posture at all times. On the few occasions that his attention wandered from Abby's unconscious form, he easily filled the time marvelling at the gadgets available to him in just this room.

The computer was voice activated, which just made him feel more like Captain Kirk, but without the aliens. With a simple command he could increase or decrease audio to whatever camera he was watching, he could zoom in on areas in each camera's field of view, he could patch his own voice through to loudspeakers in the isolation ward if he wished, he could even order beer and a pizza. After more than a thousand years of rebuilding civilisation from scratch, this new breed of humans had done pretty good!

A noise behind him made Connor spin the chair back round to the isolation ward monitors. There was a bustle of activity around Abby's bed. He started to push himself to his feet then remembered he was six feet off the floor and standing up right now might prove painful. Zooming in on the bed, Connor watched nurses fuss over their patient, blocking his view. When they finally moved away, he let out a breath he hadn't realised he was holding.

She was awake.

Finally!


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Thanks to Smallfri, Kate and Xanthiae for reviewing. I know this chapter is following on quite quickly from the last one, but that's because I want to get this finished before I go on holiday on Friday. Penultimate chapter now. I hope you like it, but do feel free to throw things at me. Well, virtual things anyway...**

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**Chapter 18**

Connor couldn't stop grinning. It had taken a month, a whole month, before the doctors had finally declared Abby and Cutter clear to leave the isolation ward. They were still keeping an eye on Abby, but at least she was now in more comfortable little room on her own with curtains and armchairs and a bathroom and a cinema system. Admittedly he'd spent longer playing with the last one than he had admiring the curtains or anything. There was even a lock on the door and a privacy switch for the camera monitoring the room. That had come in useful, even if they had been told off by her doctor later that day

Now, however, he was supposed to be being serious. The doctors had told Abby she was well enough to leave when she chose. He had broken the news to Cutter about the origin of his other self, not to mention the help Helen had given him in putting together the anomaly controllers. Cutter had been less than pleased at the time. Now he just seemed edgy. He was sat opposite Connor, an oval table separating them as Connor went over every detail of his life since moving to Darwin House. It was only fair that he let both Cutter and Abby know what had been going on, but it would also help them work out where to go from here. If there was even the slightest chance of Helen double crossing them again, they would need everyone in full possession of the facts.

"And you're sure there was a connection between the messages and the anomaly?" Cutter asked. "The future one, anyway?"

"Not a hundred percent, no," Connor replied. "But the last ones definitely came through when the future anomaly was open, so I'm thinking it's a safe bet the rest did too. That's why they seemed so random. They might not even have been in the right order!"

"And you can't work out the text in them?"

"No, it's like passing through the anomaly has garbled it somehow."

"Surely Helen would know that you hadn't got them, though, if you've been working with her for months?"

"No, Helen didn't send them," Doctor Nick cut in. "At least not while I was with her. And we watched some of those messages arrive. We were in the same time. They can't have come from her."

"Then who?" Cutter shrugged.

"The twins, maybe?" Nick mimicked Cutter's gesture.

"Who?"

Everyone was now looking at Doctor Nick Cutter, their faces showing a bizarre mixture of confusion and amusement.

"The two women she's holding in the caves," Nick said. "I think she said their names were Jenny and Claudia."

XXXX

"Remote test activated. Scanning for anomaly initiation."

Helen held her breath and watched the engineer operating the remote version of Connor's anomaly controlling device. If this test worked, she would be able to open an anomaly to any time period from any point on the globe without leaving the relative safety of the caves, or wherever else she chose to be. She would have complete control over anomalies. A more commercially minded person might have been planning the downfall of the major transport industries at this point. Helen, on the other hand, had more scientific goals to aim for.

"Anomaly detected," the engineer called out.

"Report!" Helen ordered.

"Positional vectors X and Z accurate. Y vector causing problems."

"Explain!" Helen stalked over to the engineer's console. This was an unexpected error that could lose them valuable time.

"The anomaly has opened up under the water, milady," Cai cut in from Helen's side. "It seems the Atlantic trench has deepened considerably since it was last surveyed."

"How far under the surface?"

"About five hundred metres."

"Status?"

"Temperature and pressure surrounding the anomaly are higher than usual for that depth."

Helen peered at the readings on the screen. They certainly were higher than they should be. She sighed. Few things could cause a difference like that. Either they had opened the anomaly to the wrong place in space time, or they had opened it directly above a hydrothermal vent of some form.

"What information do we have for the destination?" Helen asked an engineer at another nearby console.

"Pressure difference is causing one-way traffic outward," the engineer replied. "Preliminary data suggests destination target accurate, but no samples available for backup testing."

"Where did you aim for?" Cai asked Helen.

"My own time," Helen replied. "I set the date for the middle of the year two thousand and seven. Roughly the first or second of June."

"You are flooding your own time, then."

"I know," Helen raised her head from the console and called over to another of the engineering team. "Initiate remote anomaly shutdown sequence."

"Sequence initiated."

"Luckily," said Helen, turning back to Cai, "I've already lived through the consequences of this error. I just didn't realise at the time that I was the cause of it."

XXXX

"Mr Temple! Mr Temple! You should see this!"

The messenger had arrived in the ARC conference room waving a computer printout like it was a declaration of war. It still bugged Connor that they headed straight for him and not for either of the Nick Cutters, but at least they'd stopped calling him "Professor". That had been just a little too freaky.

The paper turned out to be a scan of an artefact dug up an hour previously in an archaeological dig in Kent. It showed the interior and contents of a thick, metal box. The message below the picture described the box as being thick, pig iron lined inside and out with lead and hammered shut. It had remained intact and watertight ever since. What had puzzled the archaeologists was not so much the box itself as its relation to its contents. Carbon dating confirmed the box was approximately one thousand, seven hundred and fifty years old, give or take ten years. The contents declared they were from the year 1292, making them exactly one thousand, seven hundred and fifty four years old. The contents also included a digital watch and an ARC issued handgun.

It had taken just twenty minutes to clear an area in the main hangar of the 31st century ARC. Now Connor stood in front of a shimmering anomaly that he was hoping would lead them through to the exact location of the time capsule, one day after the date given on the message enclosed in it. He took a hesitant step forward and collided with a small boy in medieval clothing coming the other way at top speed.

"Professor Cutter," the boy cried, ignoring Connor, who was now doubled up in pain, and running past him to stop short at the sight of the two Cutters.

"You're John Lester," said Abby, hurrying forward and scooping the child into her arms. "John, how did you end up through there? Where's everyone else? Are Becker and Kate with you?"

John nodded and wrapped his arms around Abby's neck, smirking down at a glowering Connor.

Connor's attention was taken away from the smug child by the emergence of another shape through the anomaly. One by one, Captain Becker, Kate, Elizabeth and the five remaining soldiers made their way through to the 31st century. Kate's look of surprise at her new surroundings was matched only by the look of intense amusement on Connor and Cutter's faces at the sight of six modern soldiers in full medieval dress, not to mention the presence of the unknown Elizabeth. Connor opened his mouth to make a remark, but caught a glare from Becker and closed it again.

"I take it this is the future, since you seem now able to send an anomaly straight to our front door as it were," Becker drawled, helping Connor to his feet. "Please tell me they have somewhere where we can get changed back into our own clothes!"

"They have," Doctor Nick replied. "I'll take you there. I'll bring you up to speed on things as we go."

"Oh good," Becker sighed. "What's happened now?"

XXXX

"Anomaly closed. No residual disruption to the magnetic field."

Two days. Two days! Helen shook her head. Of course, she'd realised as soon as the anomaly had opened that it would take that long to close it, but still! All the same, at least they'd ironed out the problems and perfected the apparatus now. Sighing, she made her way to the barracks. The two guards let her pass without question, opening the door to let the low hum of machinery and voices escape into the corridor. The door closed behind Helen, shutting the noise in with her once more. She walked over to one of her clones who sat scrutinising a computer screen.

"What have we got?"

"Bases set up at all major extinction points, ma'am," the clone replied. "Primary anomaly ready to be activated on your signal."

"Open it," she said. "Bring him through."

A second later, a bright white anomaly burst into being in the middle of the barracks. Helen raised a hand to shield her eyes from the glare: the inter-dimensional ones were always brighter than the normal ones. The glare dimmed as a figure walked through, silhouetted against the bright background.

"Close it," the newcomer ordered. The anomaly winked out of existence behind him.

Helen lowered her eyes and smiled at the man in front of her.

"Nice to have you back, Stephen."


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: Well, folks, this is it! Break out the champagne and strawberries, the series is at an end. This chapter is longer than the others (about twice as long) but there really was nowhere handy to split it, so I hope it just carries you through with the reading the same way it did with me writing it. I really hope you've all enjoyed reading this series as much as I have enjoyed writing it and reading your reviews. Thank you again to my regular reviewers especially: Xantiae, Kate, Pandora, Smallfri - help yourselves to lots of double chocolate chip mega cookies!**

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**Chapter 19**

"So how long were you stuck in the thirteenth century?" Connor asked Becker as they waited for the Kate to appear.

"Why?" Becker replied, staring fixedly at the door on the other side of the hanger. His men had already joined them and it had been agreed that John and Elizabeth would stay with Peta and the rest of Connor's team.

"You just seemed very comfortable in a frock, that's all," Connor shrugged.

"Don't push it, Temple," Becker growled.

Connor had failed miserably in persuading Abby that she wasn't well enough to go with them. His argument that she was still recovering from the virus had been met with a flat denial: the doctors had said she was fine. His plea that he didn't want to risk losing her again had been met with a counter-argument: all the more reason for them to stick together. His bold statement that this was really a man's job had ended in violence: he now had a very sore arm. He decided annoying two members of the team he was about to take into a hostile and potentially life-threatening environment might not be a good idea and shut up.

The two Cutters were deep in conversation a short distance away. Doctor Nick had offered to go through himself, undercover, and get Jenny and Claudia out quietly. Professor Cutter had argued that as similar as they may be, they still weren't identical and frankly he didn't trust a version of himself that could work with Helen for so long to rescue the most important person in his life. Not when there were other options.

Eventually Abby reappeared, with Kate in tow. Connor set up the controller and dialled up the anomaly. The tear opened right in front of them.

"What part of the caves will it bring us out into?" Cutter asked.

"Should be my old room, if they haven't done some major redecorating," Connor replied. "I don't have an exact date for the location so I've just reversed the signal that brought us through here and shifted the position slightly. As much time will have gone past on that side since we left as it has on this side since we arrived."

"Connor, that's nearly two months!" Cutter exploded. "Helen could have done anything with them in that time!"

"Well, then we'll just have to hope she hasn't, won't we," snapped Connor. "And if she has, then we find out exactly what time and date I need to program into this thing to get us there in time!"

Cutter didn't reply straight away. He knew the younger man was right. He sniffed and turned away from Connor to face the anomaly.

"Fine," he said. "Let's get going then."

XXXX

Cai crouched behind the boxes of supplies and watched the goings on in the engineering complex. From the moment the remote controller had been perfected, he had been shut out of proceedings. Helen and the man she had brought through an anomaly had taken over. It had been a bloodless coup: everyone knew the remote controller in Helen's hand was far more powerful than any gun or missile. With the remote, Helen could open an anomaly right inside your head or worse: inside your wife or child's.

With his engineers and troops either locked up or being forced to work for Helen, Cai was finding survival a greater challenge than usual. It was illogical that this woman from so far back down the evolutionary chain should be able to take over the way she had, but nevertheless that was what had happened. He had been outsmarted, out-guiled and outflanked. The clone army that Helen had raised in her time here was five times the size he had authorised and easily capable of overpowering the nominal troops stationed here in this outpost. He could only assume she had been making much more use of the controller technology than he had thought.

An opportunity arose and he darted across a clear area, grabbed something out of one of the boxes and darted back to his hiding place. The item he had picked up looked like only one small part of something much larger, but something he couldn't quite identify. Keeping a tight grip on it, Cai edged out of the room and back into the shadows of a side tunnel. Once encased in darkness, he stood up, stretching to his full height. He could move quickly and quietly through these tunnels with little need for light, but the question was where to go. It was known that he was a fugitive here. His own quarters would be watched. The side tunnels themselves were patrolled regularly. Everywhere other than the residential quarters and narrow side tunnels were under constant surveillance.

Dodging into a side tunnel that wasn't due to be patrolled for some time, Cai stopped and went over the residential quarters in his head. The photographic memory that allowed him to travel through the tunnels in darkness also provided him with a mental map of the area and the positions of all surveillance equipment. The quarters recently inhabited by the young Professor Temple and his friends were closest to him. He made his way there.

XXXX

The room disappeared into darkness as the anomaly winked out. After a moment or so of stumbling about, a few thuds and choice curses, Connor found the light switch. Light flooded the white walled room and it immediately became apparent which Cutter was which: the new one was the only other person not looking about in awe. Becker was the first person to come back to his senses, appraising the room quickly and quietly, then turning straight to Connor.

"Will Helen know we've arrived?"

"Unlikely," Connor replied, shaking his head. "The bedrooms aren't monitored for privacy reasons and their anomaly detector doesn't have a massive siren like our old one did. Besides, if she's still busy playing with her new toy, it'll already have an anomaly to focus on. At least one!"

"So where do we go from here?" Becker looked from Connor to Nick.

"The cells are down a couple of levels," said Nick, waving a hand to indicate the general direction of down. "There's a stairway not far from here, but there may be guards."

"I'll deal with them," Becker shrugged.

"Yeah, no offence mate," Nick smirked. "I'm afraid it's gonnae take more than you and the five amigos there to take down the guards in this place!"

"Quiet!" Cutter hissed from the other side of the room. While Becker had been quizzing Connor and Nick on the layout of the caves, Cutter had been making a circuit of the room. He had stopped by the doorway. He turned to Connor, pointing to the door. "Where does this go?"

"Out into the main corridor," said Connor. "Why?"

"There's something on the other side," Cutter kept his voice low. "Are you sure Helen doesn't know we're here?"

Connor flashed a panicked look at Cutter. Of course he wasn't sure. He'd based his reasoning on the cave system he'd left. He hadn't taken into account any changes Helen might have made in his absence. He scanned the room for cameras. None. He looked back to Cutter.

"What if there were no other anomaly open?" Cutter hissed.

Becker stepped in, waving everyone back against the door wall and taking up a place by the light switch. He held a finger to his lips, made sure everyone had got the message and flicked off the light just as the door handle started to turn.

Eleven people held their breath as the door slid silently open and a movement of air indicated the presence of a new person stepping into the room and closing the door just as silently behind them. In silence, they waited as a hand slid up the wall, fingers reaching out, feeling, searching, finding.

The light flicked on. Becker stepped forward. His gun was raised. The figure moved. A blur of speed. Becker's gun hit the floor. Becker soon followed. The figure turned. Five soldiers moved. They hit the figure as one. It dropped to the floor. They piled on top.

Moments later, the hooded figure was tied up and lying on the floor. Becker was on his feet again, holding a handkerchief to his nose and watching Cutter approach the figure cautiously. Cutter pulled the hood back and immediately stepped back, frowning.

"Who are you?" Cutter asked. "And while we're on the subject, what are you?"

"His name is Cai," Nick answered for the sullen prisoner. "He is human, but more so. He and his people are our evolutionary descendants. He runs this place."

"If he runs it, what's he doing sneaking round here on his own," Cutter growled.

"Helen has taken over," said Cai, glaring at Cutter. "Your wife, I believe."

"That sounds like her," said Cutter, pulling a chair over to face Cai and sitting down. "So far anyway. Keep talking."

"I rescued her from the blacklands north of here. She walked through a time tear with no fear of what may be on the other side. There was a prophecy among my people, millennia ago, of a lone woman, a time-walker, who would save mankind from its own downfall. I believed it to be her. I gave her food, shelter, medical care. When she was well enough, I told her of the prophecy and I asked her to help us. To help restore this dead and dying world. She agreed. I gave her everything that she asked for: access to our historical files, our research, our labs. I even provided her with a time map."

"Time map?" Cutter interrupted.

"A device which plots the time faults and allows you to open an anomaly anywhere that they cross," Cai explained.

"That's what she used to get to and from your time and this one," said Nick.

"She spotted something in the time maps," Cai continued. "It was just a flaw, so we thought. Helen decided to test that theory and discovered something new. She found she could not only move from one time to another, but also from one world to another. My people have long believed that every possible world is out there somewhere. Worlds where our ancestors chose not to halt the movement of the ice with nuclear power, but found another way instead. Worlds, even, where the ice never ceased to flow and the world froze, forcing our ancestors to adapt, leave or die. Helen found the key to those worlds. When she did, she found something else."

"Me," Nick stated simply.

"Yes, you," said Cai. "You and Claudia. Both of you are from worlds other to this one, and to each other."

"Where is Helen now?" Cutter began his interrogation again.

"She is in the engineering complex," said Cai. "She and her clones have taken over the entire cave system. There were far more of them than there should have been. Those who are not guarding prisoners are moving boxes through anomalies."

"What's in the boxes?"

"I don't know. Most were closed. One was open. I stole this from it," Cai nodded towards the item that had fallen from his hand when Becker's five soldiers rushed him.

"Connor, do you know what it is?" Cutter asked, handing the piece to Connor.

Connor turned the metallic object around in his hands shaking his head as he examined it from every angle. Suddenly he froze, his eyebrows shooting up his forehead.

"Actually, yeah, I do recognise this," he laughed. "This is a part of the first imploder we built! The one that got swallowed up by the anomaly at Darwin House!"

"The one that cost Lester three million quid!" Cutter exclaimed.

"That's the one," Connor nodded, turning the piece of imploder around in his hands again. I just assumed it had vaporised or disappeared into oblivion or something!"

"Looks like you were right with the something!" Becker muttered.

"What would Helen want with bits of a dead imploder that didn't work?" Cutter muttered.

"Well, it's not dead, exactly, just disassembled," Connor shrugged. "You put it back together again and it'll work no problem. And it did work. Or it would have done if we had told it to do the opposite of what we did tell it to do. If that makes any sense. Essentially it's just a bigger version of the controller we have now, but with less power and without the extra bit of programming that can narrow down the magnetic oscillations to exactly the right frequency to create an anomaly."

"So Helen could use these to build her own controller?" Cutter groaned.

"Helen already has a controller," said Nick. "We left her with one."

"Actually, she had a controller," said Cai. "Now she has a remote controller. She can open an anomaly wherever and whenever she likes from whatever distance. She's spent the past month since we perfected the design practising her aim. It's how she took over the caves so quickly."

"So what does she want the old imploder for then?"

"Other worlds," breathed Connor, his eyes staring, unfocussed, at the wall. "A bigger, better controller wouldn't just rip a hole in time and space, it would rip straight through to another dimension. Maybe the only ones she has access to are the two that she got Nick and Claudia from. Maybe they were already there, but not any others. She could use it to create more. Find more realities."

"Who knows, but with Helen, it's never good," said Cutter. "Look, we have to get Jenny and Claudia and get out of here. Preferably taking at least a part of Helen's plans with us just make her life more difficult."

"I can help you there," said Cai. "I can get you to the cells without passing the surveillance cameras, then back up to the engineering complex. The only problem will be if we meet some of her clone guards."

"Why should we trust you?" Becker grumbled, nursing his gun.

"You don't have that many options. Now that her own master has arrived, the pace of her operations has increased immensely. They'll be leaving soon."

"Her master?" Becker frowned as Connor and Cutter began untying Cai.

"I do not recognise him, but he obviously has power over her. You will see him when we get to engineering. The cells first though."

Reaching the cells proved simple. A series of dark side tunnels and spiral stairways led down to the cells level. Once there, it was easy to see where Helen's priorities lay. The corridors were deserted. Cai led them along first one corridor, then another, stopping in front of a control panel and pressing a few buttons. A grille slid back some distance down the corridor. Nick hurried forward, disappearing into the cell for a few moments before returning with both Jenny and Claudia. Both women looked pale at first, but then Jenny's face went white, then pink as she spotted Cutter. She hurried forward, then stopped, a look of apprehension crossing her features.

"Is it you?" Jenny breathed, watching Cutter closely. "Are you my Nick Cutter, or just another of Helen's mind games?"

"It's me, Jenny," said Cutter, striding forwards and wrapping his arms around her. "I swear, it's me."

The journey up to the engineering complex was as uneventful as the one to the cells. Cai settled the growing group in a corner behind some control panels, then dashed off, returning a few minutes later with the open box of imploder parts.

"Will this be enough to stop whatever she's doing?" Cai asked Connor.

"I've a feeling only a bullet in the brain would manage that!" Cutter snorted.

"It'll have to do," said Becker. "Now let's get out of here before our luck runs out."

"Too late," said Claudia. Her eyes were fixed on the space over Cutter and Cai's shoulders. They turned. Cutter's jaw dropped. He started to stand up, but Claudia and Cai pulled him back down sharply.

"That's Stephen!" Cutter gasped.

"Not your Stephen," Claudia hissed. "My Stephen. You see the scar above his right eye? It goes straight through his eyebrow. He got that in a so-called fight with Helen. I always thought it was a bit to clean a cut. I only found out I was right when he murdered my husband."

"Your husband?" Cutter frowned. Claudia Brown had never been married when he'd known her.

"You," she replied softly. "My version of you, anyway. After the Permian anomaly, you asked me and I said yes. Lester gave me away."

Cutter swallowed. He didn't know what to say to that. He certainly didn't know what to make of the version of Stephen walking around over there ordering men around and apparently taking charge even of Helen.

"We have to go, now," said Becker.

Cai nodded and led them out of the engineering area and into a side room nearby.

"You can open your anomaly here," he said. "Can't you?"

Connor nodded and started punching buttons on the controller. Seconds later the anomaly flickered into life. Connor stuck his head through then pulled it back, nodding and waving through Becker and his men, carrying the box of imploder pieces. Abby, Kate and Jenny went through next. They had barely disappeared when the door swung open behind them. A shot rang out and Connor clutched at his shoulder, almost dropping the controller. Cutter, Cai, Claudia and Nick turned to see Stephen levelling a gun at them.

Stephen's second shot was aimed at the controller in Connor's hand. Nick reached his arm before he pulled the trigger and pushed it wide, the bullet ricocheting off the metal fixtures on the chalk wall. One punch sent Nick to the floor. Before the others had a chance to reach him, there was a bullet in Nick's skull. Claudia screamed and launched herself at Stephen as soon as she saw Nick fall. Before Stephen could turn the gun on Claudia she had it in her hand and had turned it on him, firing without hesitation at point blank range. Blood spurted across the white wall behind Stephen and he slumped to the floor, leaving Claudia standing there, shaking.

The gun fell from her hand with a clatter and she sank to the floor. Cutter ran to her side.

"I couldn't let him get away with it again," Claudia gasped, her hand finding the knife that had buried itself in her side during her attack. "He killed my Nick once. I hated him enough for that already. But to see him kill him again. Like that. I-I just..."

"It's okay," said Cutter gently. "It's okay. You've probably just saved who knows how many millions of lives, not to mention ours."

Claudia smiled up at him once, then slipped away into oblivion. Cutter laid her down and turned at the sound of footsteps. It was Becker, back through the anomaly. He looked around and immediately dropped to Connor's side. In all the excitement, Cutter hadn't even noticed Connor had fallen to the floor.

"We have to get him through, now!" Becker cried, sticking his head through the anomaly then pulling it back, followed by his men. Between them the scooped up Claudia, Nick and Connor, carrying them through the shining aperture to the relative safety of the ARC on the other side.

"Come on, it's time to go," Cutter said to Cai, waving him forward to the anomaly.

"I have to stay here," said Cai, shaking his head. "Now that Stephen is out of the picture, maybe Helen and her troops will be disorganised enough for me to lead a resistance against them. Either way, my place is here, with my people."

Cutter nodded and stepped through the anomaly, picking up the controller on the way. On the far side of the anomaly, he turned and closed it, only then turning to see the chaos that had preceded him through. Jenny was crying silently by Nick and Claudia's bodies, Kate trying to comfort her, but what disturbed Cutter more was the sight of Abby staring blankly ahead of her, her eyes occasionally flicking across to the single wound in Nick's forehead, to the two red wounds in Connor's unconscious body.

Seconds later, medics piled into the room, moved Connor to a trolley and disappeared through the doors at the far end of the hangar with him. Cutter walked up behind Abby and put a hand on her shoulder.

"He'll be okay," he said. "They can do amazing things here."

"No, he won't," sobbed Abby. "He won't. I've seen this. I've seen it happen. All of it. Stephen turning on us. You dead. Connor dead. One wound through his shoulder, one through his heart. I dreamt it all and now it's all come true."

There was no reply to that, Cutter thought. After all, it was just the shock and grief talking. Flashing a look across to Becker, who nodded in return, he led Abby away. Away from the two dead bodies and the spreading pool of Connor's blood on the floor.

XXXX

"Uncle Pete, you need to watch this."

Becker looked up from the book he was reading to see John holding out a palmtop viewer to him. He was still having trouble getting used to the 31st century technology here. He even found it difficult to work his new phone. Jenny had made a similar complaint. Apparently her phone had worked perfectly in the future, where she had sent several messages for help to the only phone number she could remember: Connor's. Unfortunately it now turned out that it only worked when an anomaly was open to the correct time for a mobile phone signal to seep through to let her send the messages. For the rest of the time it appeared she had been "out of range" of the transmitters.

Becker let John set up the video in the viewer. The younger the person, apparently the less time it took them to adapt to more modern technology. He wondered how Elizabeth was coping. She'd been threatening to write everything they had been through down and restart her career with the longest awaited comeback in history. He pressed play, that much he could manage, and sat back.

Becker felt an odd constriction in his chest that he hadn't felt for a long time when he saw Lester's face appear in the video, along with his wife and two other children.

"John, Peter, we're leaving this message for you in the hope that one day you will find it. Once it's recorded I'll e-mail it through to the ARC servers with instructions for them to keep it on their permanent data banks with several backup copies, just in case an anomaly opens in one of them!

"By now, John, I'm sure your Uncle Pete has told you all about the anomalies. If he hasn't he should have. Stare him out until he does. You know he hates it when you do that. I've told your Mum and your brother and sister here. They had a right to know what was going on.

"I know you're not happy with me for leaving you on your own, John, but really I had no choice. I hope one day you'll understand that. We're not exactly cheerful about the way things have turned out here either, but at least we're together, and for that, we're grateful. We just wanted to leave you a message to remind you, wherever you are, that we love you. We always have and we always will. Wherever you are, you are still my son, and you will always make me very proud of you, just by having the strength to live through this for me.

I also wanted you to know that you're not alone. You do still have family. In fact you're one of the few who does, probably. You see your Uncle Pete was not the only person you know who had to change his name. I did too. A long time ago, when I was about the same age as your Uncle Pete was when you were born, I changed my name. I changed it from Berenger. When I did that, I had to walk away from everyone else in my life: my parents, my friends and my brother. My older brother, his wife and their little baby boy, Peter.

"Well, I'll get this sent off to the ARC now. We've all sorted out our wills so that everything should be held in trust for you until you claim it. You never know: if you're far enough in the future you might turn out to be a millionaire! Please don't spend it all at once! We really do need to go now, John. I don't know how much longer the power will last. Just remember that we love you. Goodbye."

Becker's eyes were wet when the screen went dark. He could hear John sniffling behind him too.

"Where did you get this?" Becker asked, his voice thick. Lester was his father's brother. He could hardly believe it.

"Nigel found it in the computers."

"Is he still hiding from Uncle Connor?"

John nodded. After discovering the source of his mysterious text messages, a weak but living Connor had demanded to know where the unsigned birthday card had come from. It turned out his secret admirer was not Peta, but Nigel. The speechless expression on Connor's pale face had made sure that Nigel turned bright pink and ran off to hide every time either Connor or Abby came into view.

"Where's Auntie Kate?" Becker asked.

"She's cheating at poker with Connor, Abby, Peta and Auntie Sam."

Becker smiled. John had taken to the haughty chemist.

"Tell Uncle Connor he shouldn't be out of bed yet," Becker grinned. "And tell Auntie Kate she doesn't need to cheat if Connor's playing."

"I did, she said it's not him she's worried about."

"Just don't let her play with your new fortune, kiddo."

~Fini~


	20. Series 4

Episode 2 in my Primeval Series 4 is now up!

Look for **Primeval Series 4: Episode 2: He Ain't Heavy**

If you haven't already read the first episode, look for **Primeval Series 4: Episode 1: MIA**


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